Zapiski Komisji Geografii Historycznej PTH The problem of using persistent identifiers for historical geographical objects Grzegorz Myrda https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2756-8654 Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences

Tomasz Panecki https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3483-2035 Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences

Abstract: The authors describe the usage of persi- Zarys treści: Autorzy podejmują problem stosowa- stent identifiers (PIDs) for historical geographical nia trwałych identyfikatorów (PID) odnośnie do objects. They provide PIDs’ definition and scope historycznych obiektów geograficznych. Przyta- of use as well as characterise the process of data czają definicję i zakres wykorzystywania PID-ów, harmonisation and PIDs’ creation. The article omawiają kwestię harmonizacji danych historycz- describes and assesses certain approaches used in no-geograficznych oraz zasady tworzenia PID-ów. different projects. Most often, internal identifiers W artykule omówione zostały dotychczasowe roz- are used, although their stability is not guaranteed. wiązania stosowane w różnych projektach. Naj- References are also made to external data stores częściej używa się wewnętrznych identyfikatorów, such as Geonames and Wikidata. których stabilność nie jest określona. Mamy także odwołania do zasobów zewnętrznych (Geonames, Wikidata). Keywords: identifier, harmonisation, PID, historical Słowa kluczowe: identyfikator, harmonizacja, PID, geographical object historyczny obiekt geograficzny

Data harmonisation attributes of a settlement may include its The resource identifiers we use when con- name, type, location, area occupied, etc.1 ducting research play a key role in harmo- The identity of geographical objects, nising data from different sources, such as and the ascertainment of their continu- national and academic, contemporary and ity over time, becomes a key issue from historical sources. The identifiers make it the perspective of conducting historical possible to establish direct and numerical and geographical research using GIS tools. links to the objects introduced into the It is also the subject of an interdiscipli- system based on references made to them nary discussion of historians, geographers, in different historical sources covering philo­soph­ers and computer scientists. different time periods. It is actually time Identification as such is an attempt at (meaning the diachronic approach) that a compromise between the intuition of causes the most difficulties in identifying a researcher, who points to the same ob- objects. However, we should not forget jects in different sources, and the need to about the issues resulting from the syn- identify these objects numerically in in- chronic approach (similar time, different formation systems. Based on the research source). The identified objects, meaning those assigned the same identifier, are the 1 P. Garbacz, A. Ławrynowicz, B. Szady, Identity criteria for localities, in: Formal ontology in information systems, ed. S. Borgo, P. Hitzler, O. Kutz, same objects regardless of their attributes Amsterdam–Berlin–Washington 2018 (Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence that are changing over time. For instance, and Applications, 306), pp. 47–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/SG.2020.08 Studia Geohistorica • Nr 08. 2020 179 Zapiski… Grzegorz Myrda, Tomasz Panecki

conducted so far on historical and con- in the type of a settlement with the same temporary settlements, we can indicate name and location should raise doubts as four main constitutive properties of geo- to its identification.4 Another example is graphical objects that show their identity the diachronic identification of objects over time: proper name, location, type and from different classes, such as a physi- mereological relations. The first two are ographic object and a settlement in this taken into account most frequently.2 case. In Nowy Tomyśl Poviat, in the place The issues relating to a proper name where the former settlement called Bo- include its unchangeability, its varieties, brówka was located, there is now a swamp variants, but also the problem of differ- bearing the same name.5 Therefore, we ent languages. While there is no doubt have a change of type here (and even of that the names Grodzisko, Gratez and object class), but not of name and loca- Grodzisk Wielkopolski refer to the same tion, so we can say that it is the same ob- object, the names Kąty and Winkel may ject. The identification is also significantly arouse doubts, even though it is the same influenced by mereological relations, es- expression rendered in different languages. pecially in the diachronic context. There However, if we take the names Zielonka are many cases where, during the settle- and Przyłęk, we must use an additional ment process, a settlement was divided criterion for their identification. In this into two or more parts or became part of case, this criterion will be the identical another settlement. If a reference resource location of the objects. We can assume provides an identifier for two equivalent that geographical objects which are located settlements (for example with an annota- in the same place according to different tion -Dolny – ‘Lower’, -Górny – ‘Upper’), sources (assuming that their object class- and earlier the settlement was mentioned es are compatible) are the same objects, as one entity, we have a problem with its even if they have different proper names. identification. An example may be Psary However, this assumption may turn out (Będzin Poviat): its diachronic identifica- to be incorrect, as it is difficult to define tion is ambiguous because of complicated the compatibility of location which is af- mereological relations.6 fected by, among others, the level of gen- Even though much experience has been eralisation used (if a settlement is seen as gathered in historical and geographical re- a point or an area), the accuracy of the search and certain solutions for numerical map and the spatial development or even identification of objects have been devel- actual relocation of a settlement (for ex- oped, misidentification scenarios may oc- ample Nieszawa3) which does not affect cur and lead to negative consequences for its identity. When identifying an object, semantic coherence of data. Two such sce- we also sometimes consider the compat- narios are: (1) same settlements, different ibility of object types, such as towns, vil- identifiers and (2) different settlements, lages, grain milling hamlets and smithery same identifiers. The correct scenario is (3) settlements in the case of a settlement. same settlements, same identifiers. In or- Of course, the nature of a settlement may der to achieve it, a conceptually correct have changed over time, but if we have ref- data harmonisation is needed. erences from similar periods, the difference

2 Ibidem. 3 W. Duży, Powiat m. Toruń, in: Metodologia tworzenia czasowo-przestrzen- nych baz danych dla rozwoju osadnictwa oraz podziałów terytorialnych, 4 T. Panecki, Powiat nowotomyski, in: Metodologia tworzenia, pp. 257–258. ed. B. Szady, [Warszawa 2019] (project report, 10.5281/zenodo.3751266), 5 Ibidem, p. 274. pp. 377–378. 6 W. Duży, Powiat będziński, in: Metodologia tworzenia, pp. 45–49.

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What is a PID () and what we share data or pieces of information that is it used for? may need to be referenced (quotation) or We have all probably encountered the si- referred to by external computer systems tuation when at a given URL (Uniform (harmonisation), it is very important to Resource Locator) instead of the expected share these resources together with iden- content we see the message: “404 – Page tifiers that make a long-term and stable not found.” As long as such a situation reference to the specific resource. concerns data that are not very impor- We can give a few examples that show tant, it does not matter much. Since the how identifiers may look, without deter- Internet is developing quickly and is be- mining whether these are persistent iden- ing used everywhere, for everything and tifiers that meet all the pertinent criteria. by everyone, such situations will become Examples of identifiers from the National increasingly common in everyday life. Ho- Register of Geographical Names (Polish: wever, they should not occur in cases for Państwowy Rejestr Nazw Geograficznych – which the was inven- PRNG),7 Geonames8 and Wikidata9 con- ted – for disseminating scientific achieve- cerning the same settlement are set out ments and coordinating research carried below. These identifiers meet most of the out in different research centres. The 404 criteria for persistent identifiers. Yet in Error may be a result of not using persi- fact, we can only state that something is stent identifiers (PIDs) which identify re- a persistent identifier when it stands the sources in a unique and persistent manner. test of time. Before that, it is only its aim. A lot of online and offline data do not have such identifiers or are given identifiers that Table 1. Identifiers of Adamowice in different systems only have some of the characteristics of System Identifier persistent identifiers. That is why it is diffi- PRNG 100 cult to use them in any context other than Geonames 776782 the project under which they were created. Wikidata Q4680202 Gradually, more and more data types Source: authors’ own elaboration within published resources are being as- signed persistent identifiers. The ISBN is Such identifiers are usually shared on one of the oldest, most common and most the Internet and converted via resolver frequently cited examples of identifica- systems into content related to a given tion systems. Its basic feature (just like in resource. the case of a persistent identifier for any The following resolvers exist for the other resource) is that it is assigned once above identifiers: and for all. Different identification sys- – PRNG: https://pzgik.geoportal.gov. tems may be used depending on the type pl/prng/Miejscowosc/PL.PZGiK.204. of resource, whether it is digital or exists PRNG.00000000-0000-0000-0000- in the real world (or whether its virtual 000000000100-67, equivalent is concerned). Just as various 7 Regulation of the Minister of Administration and Digitisation of 14 February types of resources (for example books, mu- 2012 on the National Register of Geographical Names: Rozporządzenie seum objects, records in a database) differ, Ministra Administracji i Cyfryzacji z dnia 14 lutego 2012 r. w sprawie so do the needs for their identification. państwowego rejestru nazw geograficznych, Dz.U. 2012, poz. 309. The data are available in various formats on the website of the Head Office of Geodesy The system used to identify them must and Cartography (Polish: Główny Urząd Geodezji i Kartografii):Dane z pań- take their individual characteristics and stwowego rejestru nazw geograficznych – PRNG, “Główny Urząd Geodezji the resulting needs into account. i Kartografii” (http://www.gugik.gov.pl/pzgik/dane-bez-oplat/dane-z-panst- wowego-rejestru-nazw-geograficznych-prng; accessed on: April 29, 2020). There is one common, general need, 8 “Geonames” (https://www.geonames.org/, accessed on: April 29, 2020). independent of the type of resource: when 9 “Wikidata” (https://www.wikidata.org/, accessed on: April 29, 2020).

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– Geonames: https://www.geonames. their own. Wikidata is not only a database, org/776782/adamowice.html, but also a system enabling its functioning. – Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/ Its development has been sustainable and wiki/Q4680202. it is difficult to imagine that it could be Ensuring the persistence of these iden- stopped. All the more so since it does not tifiers (as well as their translation into only cover geographical data. The choice relevant ) is a key factor enabling depends, as we can see, on many factors further knowledge development. It is of- which are not always objective. However, ten tempting to consider something as it seems that the most universal identi- a persistent identifier based on only one fier that meets the most criteria is the one criterion: a URL under which the resource provided by Wikidata. is available. This is not always enough. Notably, it is good practice to supple- A URL can (and often does) undergo ment persistent identifiers with a service changes that are independent of the data that makes it possible to explore the rel- manager. These can include, for example, evant data under a given identifier. This is organisational changes or modifications to a service that is independent of the infra- the IT infrastructure (changing the server structure used for assigning and hosting or the system for data publication). How- persistent identifiers. It enables resolv- ever, above all, it is not up to the recipient ing, which means converting PID values of the data to decide whether something into the presentation of characteristics of is a persistent identifier. The data man- a given resource. Unlike persistent identi- ager must clearly express such an aim and fier management infrastructure which is make it credible to the outside world that not always implemented using Internet the identifiers it publishes will be persis- technologies (for instance ISBN), resolvers tent identifiers. Moreover, if there are are usually based on one of the Internet many infrastructural resources, it is also protocols, such as HTTP. A URL, mean- important to provide access to full infor- ing the location of a resource description, mation about the resource identified by is often treated as a kind of a two-in-one the persistent identifier. Geographical data solution – it acts as both an identifier are an example of infrastructural resources and a resolver. However, a URL as such, and they often constitute spatial context in a very narrow sense (with no link to for other data. a suitable infrastructure for handling per- Each of the three examples above rep- sistent identifiers), should not be seen as resents a different type of data manager, a persistent identifier. Even though the each with its advantages and disadvantag- URI10 standard may be the basis for one es. The National Register of Geographi- of possible implementations of a persis- cal Names (PRNG) is a state-run resource tent identifier system, this is not enough governed by law, which means that there since a PID should have some additional is relatively little risk that it will be dis- features. continued, but it is limited to a certain area. Moreover, this register does not cover What are the features of a good PID? historical data since the law does not pre- An identifier for a resource should meet scribe it, so objects that cease to exist in the many additional criteria compared to contemporary world also disappear from a normal identifier in order to be consid- the database. Geonames is a worldwide ered as persistent. It is acknowledged that database, but it operates within a com- 10 T. Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, L. Masinter, Uniform Resource Identifier mercial model on a relatively small scale. (URI): Generic Syntax, IETF, January 2005 (DOI: 10.17487/RFC3986, Everyone can assess its future prospects on OCLC: 943595667).

182 Studia Geohistorica • Nr 08. 2020 The problem of using persistent identifiers for historical geographical objects Zapiski… a good identifier, together with the system Costs adapted to capabilities: main- enabling its functioning, should have the taining each identifier (just like maintain­ following main features11: ing an Internet domain name) often in- Uniqueness: one identifier identifies volves an annual cost. If there are many only one resource. identifiers, costs increase rapidly. At one Stability: an identifier will never point time, the Max Planck Institute wanted to to any other resource. assign DOIs to 500,000 objects that it had Persistence: an identifier is assigned in its database. Since such a solution would once and for all and will always be avail- cost USD 30,000 a year, this method was able, just like the resource it identifies. not implemented.12 The assessment of what the chances are that the organisation enabling the func- Rules for creating persistent identifiers tioning of an identifier (sometimes to- When creating a persistent identifier, first- gether with basic ) will be able ly you have to determine the identity of to ensure its continuous functioning in the the resource which is to receive a persistent same form is somewhat subjective, but it identifier. This resource can later change its needs to be taken into account. various characteristics and further charac- Ability to provide the right granular- teristics can be added, but it cannot point ity: the infrastructure for handling identi- to any other object. A resource that is once fiers makes it possible to version resources assigned a specific identifier can no longer and identify parts of them. For example, change it, so it cannot lose its identity. it is possible to identify a whole set of Depending on the type of resource, dif- settlements or just one of them. ferent elements determine its identity. URI specification compliance: the It is also not easy to establish the criteria methods for handling identifiers at the lev- that define it. Therefore, the assignment el of abstract specification should be in- of persistent identifiers should be well dependent of technological solutions to thought-out. When it comes to identify- ensure that identifiers will be able to func- ing geographical objects, we should be able tion with the use of any technical means to determine whether we are still dealing that may be developed in the future. with the same object despite its changes Metadata handling: it should be pos- and the passage of time. Many elements sible to read the metadata describing may undergo changes, for example proper a resource before moving to that specific name (for instance renaming a settlement resource. following a partition of a country), loca- Lack of semantics: an identifier should tion (relocation of a settlement as a result not contain any semantic information of a change in hydrographic conditions), that may become outdated and need to type (granting municipal rights). There be changed. is practically no feature that can never Scalability: the identifier handling sys- change. Usually, only a change of several tem must be able to work efficiently as the features at the same time can be considered number of identifiers handled increases, as a change of identity and create a need and be able to work 24 hours a day. for a new identifier. In the case of geographical data, there is 11 Persistent identifiers best practices, CEOS Data Stewardship Interest Group, no single manager who owns information ver. 1.1, pp. 9–11 (https://earth.esa.int/documents/1656065/2265358/ on this type of resource. That is why we CEOS-Persistent-Identifier-Best-Practices, accessed on: December 17, have to bear an additional aspect in mind: 2019); Persistent and unique Identifiers, ed. D. Broeder et al., ver. 4, Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure 2009, pp. 7–8 (https://office.clarin.eu/pp/D2R-2b.pdf, accessed on: February 20, 2020). 12 Ibidem, p. 10.

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many institutions and systems must be model that is suitable for individual use. able to identify such a resource simultane- In other cases, using the Handle System ously. This should be taken into account directly is recommended (the DOI at the when designing an identification system. technological level also uses the Handle After preparing the data (and their System). metadata) which are to receive a persis- tent identifier, we can proceed with the PIDs and coordinates technical part, namely requesting such When creating persistent identifiers, it an identifier from a system that assigns may also be tempting to use geograph- persistent identifiers. ic coordinates as an identifier (just like in the case of a URL mentioned above). Internal or external system Can the coordinates of a geographical ob- Theoretically, it is possible to create the ject constitute its identifier? As previously necessary infrastructure in your own in- stated, any feature of an object can change stitution to join one of the existing global over time. This also applies to coordinates systems for managing persistent identifiers. that describe a location, for example of In return for hosting a fragment of a larger a settlement. Therefore, just like the proper IT infrastructure, you are given the ability name, they cannot constitute an identifier. to assign an unlimited number of identi- What we want to achieve is the identifica- fiers. This infrastructure works like the in- tion of a geographical object, not a place. frastructure that assigns domain addresses. However, it is much more common to Standards and systems purchase a certain number of identifiers Currently, there are many standards and from a service provider. In such a case, systems that regulate assigning persistent handling persistent identifiers consists in identifiers and linking them to a specific hosting the description of a resource avail- digital resource. Among these, the follow- able at a specific URL on your own serv- ing systems are the most important: er – while the provider’s server hosts up-to- – URI-URN Standard – IETF/W3C (ex- -date infrastructure that redirects from the ample: urn:isbn:0451450523), identifier’s address to the address on your – Handle System – Corporation for Na- own server – and updating the metadata tional Research Initiatives Virginia (ex- about the resource on the provider’s server. ample: hdl:2381/12775), According to the Persistent identifier best – DOI System – International DOI Fed- practices13 report, the system using digital eration based on the Handle System object identifiers (DOIs) is currently the (example: doi:10.1186/2041-1480-3-9, most popular system on a global scale. https://dx.doi.org/), The DOI is a consortium of publishing – ePIC – consortium of European part- houses that offer a commercial infrastruc- ners for the European Research Com- ture for assigning and managing persistent munity (example: https://hdl.handle. identifiers called DOIs. Even though it is net/20.500.12434/8d621959), the most popular system, the DOI is seen – PURL – redirection service (example: as a commercial solution14 with a business https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo112620), – UUID – universally unique num- 13 C. Ferguson et al., Survey of current PID services landscape, May 2018, ber (example: 123e4567-e89b-12d3- p. 12 (https://zenodo.org/record/1324296, accessed on: April 24, 2020). a456-426655440000). 14 D. Van Uytvanck, PID policy summary, ver. 1, Common Language Re- In addition to the most common Han- sources and Technology Infrastructure 2014, p. 2 (https://www.clarin. eu/sites/default/files/CE-2013-0340-PID-policy-summary.pdf, accessed dle System (the DOI at the technical level on: April 24, 2020). also uses the Handle System), the following

184 Studia Geohistorica • Nr 08. 2020 The problem of using persistent identifiers for historical geographical objects Zapiski… systems constitute an universal way of “so” – a geographical object, providing identifiers that meet some of “def” – a definition of a geographical the criteria for PIDs: the above-mentioned object, PURL – which is in fact a system of re- “doc” – documentation related to dif- directions from URLs (treated as stable ferent forms of presentation. addresses) to the addresses where the data However, it is difficult to apply a similar or pieces of information related to a given approach to historical data which are not resource are actually located (i.e. variable in the scope of the INSPIRE Directive addresses) – and UUID – which is an because they are not covered by national identifier based on a special algorithm legislation and thus do not have a pre- using, among other things, the passage defined manager. Therefore, it is difficult of time to generate a globally unique char- to ensure that the namespace of the data acter string that does not need to be ad- source is unique. ditionally described, for example with the name of a dataset, in order to ensure that it What should a PID indicate? will not be repeated in the context of an- The material scope of identifiers is an- other dataset. other issue worth considering. In the A report15 describing the current status system consisting of the so-called source of different infrastructures for handling and resultant data, the PID of a given geo- persistent identifiers lists three PID sys- graphical object, for instance a settlement, tems that are used so far for Temporal pe- is a link between these two components riod & historical place and describes the and makes it possible to refer the inter- level of maturity of their infrastructures pretation to the sources.17 While in the re- as immature. These systems are: ARK sultant component a PID acts as a unique (), URI (Uniform identifier and primary key, in the case of Resource Identifier) and accession number. source data a PID is a foreign key and According to the authors of a Finnish may be repeated, as a source may contain concept16 of persistent identifiers for geo- many references to a given settlement. The graphical objects which has been devel- question is whether the scope of assigning oped in accordance with the INSPIRE Di- persistent identifiers should not also apply rective, the identifier consists of a unique to the identifiers for source data. In such namespace of the data source, resource a case, a reference could be made not only type, dataset identifier, local identifier­ to a critical object, but also to individual and version identifier. Local identifi­ers are source proofs that have stable identifiers. generated by the data manager. They As we can see, persistent identifiers for are published in the HTTP URI format. geographical objects can be accompanied The format of the publication address is by persistent identifiers for any other data as follows: that can be referenced. All the more so http://{domain name}/{URI type}/ if there is a chance that these identifiers {dataset identifier}/{local identifier}[/{ver- can be used in an entirely different context. sion identifier}] Unfortunately, persistent identifiers do The resource type may be one of the not solve the age-old problem of data re- following: dundancy. Theoretically (and in practice “id” – a real-world object, this often happens), the same object can be described with two different identifiers by 15 C. Ferguson et al., Survey, p. 10. 16 JHS 193 unique identifiers of geographic data, “JHS-suositukset” (http:// docs.jhs-suositukset.fi/jhs-suositukset/JHS193_en/JHS193_en.html, 17 B. Szady, Spatio-temporal databases as research tool in historical geo­ accessed on: April 30, 2020). graphy, “Geographia Polonica,” 89 (3), 2016, pp. 359–370.

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two different organisations independent of France.19 However, no reference is made each other. In such a case, a PID indicates to external reference datasets, such as Geo­ one of the versions of the object description. names and Wikidata, and there are several Importantly, objects should be de- fields in the database that have other iden- scribed with terms which have definitions tifiers whose use is unknown due to the that can also be identified with persistent lack of documentation. identifiers. Persistent identifiers can thus The Beauplan’s Ukraine project is a digi- point not only directly to objects (geo- tal edition of special maps of Ukraine that graphical data), but also to definitions were made by Guillaume Le Vasseur de that determine the semantic framework Beauplan.20 The project has a form of for these data. a digital gazetteer which contains ele- ments of map content located according Existing solutions to Google Maps.21 In the attribute table So far, there is no coherent methodology (*.shp file) of these data we have access to for harmonising and identifying historical a lot of information, including the URL topographic objects and for creating their of each object which constitutes its unique persistent identifiers. We can describe identifier. We also have another identifier a number of different approaches based (gazbu-id) which is different from that of on several examples (“Geohistorical Data,” the URL, and a proper name, (contempo- “GBU,” “GASID,” “GB 1800,” “HistoGIS,” rary) coordinates and the URL of the ob- “Pleiades” and “NHGIS”), but we have to ject identified in Geonames geonames-id(­ ). bear in mind that in the absence of pro- The GASID project (Galicia and Aus­ ject documentation or of a clear statement trian Silesia Interactive Database 1857– from the data manager, the stability of any 1910) aims to make statistical and car- identifiers should be treated with caution. tographic information on 19th-century The authors of the first project, Geohis- Galicia and Austrian Silesia available to torical Data, have developed a geoportal a wide range of researchers.22 The data and provide data from the 18th-century collected will be prepared as digital maps Cassini map.18 The downloadable data and presented as a geoportal in 2020, but include the road network and natural a part of them has already been published, landscape elements, but also borders rep- namely roads and settlements according to resented linearly (limites administratives), the second topographic map (the so-called buildings (taches urbaines), settlements Franciscan land survey).23 The available shown as areas and points (chefs-lieux) and data concerning settlements only show their other objects (lieux ponctuels). The data on names taken from the map and the con- the settlements are in fact part of the last temporary names. No identifier is includ- three tables, which results in data redun- ed, except for the internal, numerical one. dancy. The role of an identifier for external systems is played by the URL of objects 19 C. Motte, M.-C. Vouloir, Le site cassini.ehess.fr un instrument d’obser- from the website of the “Des villages de vation pour une analyse du peuplement, “Bulletin du Comité français de cartographie,” 191, 2007, pp. 68–84. Cassini aux communes d’aujourd’hui” 20 B. Olszewicz, Polska kartografia wojskowa, Warszawa 1921, pp. 17–19. project. This project deals with the 21 M. Polczynski, M. Polczynski, Beauplan’s Ukraine: open access georef- critical processing of the data from the erenced databases for studies of early modern history of Central and Eastern Europe, “Miscellanea Geographica,” 23 (3), 2019, pp. 185–193; Cassini map, namely settlements and Beauplan’s Ukraine, “Harvard Dataverse” (https://dataverse.harvard.edu/ administrative divisions of 18th-century dataverse/BU, accessed on: April 21, 2020). 22 “GASID” (http://gasid.pl/, accessed on: April 21, 2020). 18 J. Perret, M. Gribaudi, M. Barthelemy, Roads and cities of 18th century 23 D. Kaim, M. Szwagrzyk, K. Ostafin,Mid-19 th century road network dataset France, “Scientific Data,” 2, 2015, p. 150048; “Geohistorical Data” (http:// for Galicia and Austrian Silesia, Habsburg Empire, “Data in Brief,” 28, www.geohistoricaldata.org/, accessed on: April 21, 2020). 2020, p. 104854.

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It is interesting to examine how “A Vi- unchanging URI (Uniform Resource Iden- sion of Britain through Time” platform24 tifier) as well as references to Geonames. identifies objects. It is a comprehensive The American National Historical Geo- geoportal concerning the history of Great graphic Information System (NHGIS)28 Britain in spatial terms which consists of makes it possible to download US sta- many modules: statistical (quantitative tistical data (also in spatial data formats) thematic maps), cartographic (old maps) for years from 1790 to the present day. and semantic (search engine for places).25 The system includes both areal data (sta- On the geoportal, each settlement is de- tistical areas at different aggregation levels) scribed by an identifier in the form of and point data (settlements) in different a URL and is also linked to other re- time frames. Areal data from different years sources, such as Geonames and Wikipedia. are only partly linked to one another due HistoGIS is a platform for collecting, to changes in geometry. As for point data, creating and compiling geographical his- NHGIS uses a system of stable identifiers torical data, as well as for sharing them that indicate the same settlement in dif- with other researchers. It operates under ferent years regardless of changes in name the Linked Open Data and uses SKOS and even in census identifiers. to organise information.26 The platform The above review shows that the issue shows political and administrative divi- of identifiers is treated in various ways, sions of Europe which were developed both as regards the stability of the inter­ based on vectorising old and historical nal ID and as regards the links to external maps and were afterwards transformed systems (table 2). Two solutions (Geohis- into a common data model. The plat- torical Data, GASID) include no such form makes it possible to download data link and three solutions provide a link (in *.json format) or view them on the to reference datasets: Geonames (GBU, geoportal. The information includes an GB 1800) and Wikipedia / Wikidata (His- internal identifier (URL), an ID toGIS, GB 1800). HistoGIS, Pleiades and from Wikidata and mereological relations NHGIS claim to have stable identifiers. with higher and lower-level units. Pleiades is a gazetteer of ancient places Model used in the Department of Historical that uses semantic networks. It makes it Atlas possible to search for ancient places, dis- Within historical and geographical re- play them on a map and in a graphical search currently carried out in the De- form, and download them.27 The data partment of Historical Atlas of the Tadeusz are stored in an object database which Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish links the following components: “places,” Academy of Sciences, we generally use “names” and “locations.” Each resource, two external systems and we treat their meaning a specific place with a specific identifiers as stable. These systems are: the location and name, is given a fixed and National Register of Geographical Names (Polish: Państwowy Rejestr Nazw Geogra- 24 Historical maps, “A Vision of Britain through Time” (http://www.vision- ficznych – PRNG) for point data (mainly ofbritain.org.uk/maps/, accessed on: November 21, 2019). settlements) and the National Register 25 H. Southall, Constructing a Vision of Britain through Time: Integrating of Boundaries (Polish: Państwowy Rejestr old maps, census reports, travel writing, and much else, into an online historical atlas, in: Historical atlas: Its concepts and methodologies, Granic – PRG) for the divisions of secular ed. P.K. Bol, Seoul 2016, pp. 133–151; H. Southall, P. Aucott, Express- and ecclesiastical administration. It should ing history through a geo-spatial ontology, “ISPRS International Journal be noted that these are national and official of Geo-Information,” 8 (8), 2019, p. 362. 26 “HistoGIS” (https://histogis.acdh.oeaw.ac.at/, accessed on: April 24, 2020). 27 “Pleiades” (https://pleiades.stoa.org/, accessed on: April 29, 2020). 28 “IPUMS NHGIS” (https://www.nhgis.org/, accessed on: July 21, 2020).

Studia Geohistorica • Nr 08. 2020 187 Zapiski… Grzegorz Myrda, Tomasz Panecki

Table 2. Features of selected geoportals

Geoportal name Data type Internal ID External ID Downloadable data settlements, numerical; “Geohistorical Data” administrative borders, none *.shp no stability declaration roads, hydrography numerical; “GBU” settlements, toponyms URL; Geonames *.shp no stability declaration numerical; “GASID” settlements, roads none *.shp no stability declaration settlements, numerical; “GB 1800” Geonames, Wikidata none administrative divisions no stability declaration URI; “HistoGIS” administrative divisions Wikidata *.json stable URI; *.json, *.csv, *.kml, “Pleiades” places Geonames stable *.rdf alphanumeric; “NHGIS” statistical data none *.shp stable Source: authors’ own elaboration

registers, which is important for the sta- ecclesiastical units from different periods. bility of their identifiers. The harmonisa- The methodology consists in adding ap- tion of resources included in the National propriate attributes of administrative af- Register of Geographical Names (PRNG) filiation to cadastral precincts based on is based on methodologies developed in historical settlements located in their terri- the Department for the Identification of tory. If a cadastral precinct has settlements Settlements, primarily on the basis of loca- with mutually exclusive attributes (for ex- tion identity and similarity of the name. ample they belonged to different poviats Of course, some data do not have PRNG in the 16th century), this cadastral precinct identifiers and concern settlements that should be divided so that only points with disappeared, were absorbed or divided. The coherent attributes remain in each polygon. identification of such settlements would be However, a disadvantage of the official vitiated by a too serious error. The data on registers mentioned above is that they settlements could also be harmonised with only cover the territory of contemporary the BDOT10k database and the SIMC Poland, while in the past Polish borders and TERYT registers, but the PRNG was extended further, especially to the east. chosen due to its scope, among others (it Hence the idea of using identifiers from also includes physiographic objects29). In other resources (such as Wikidata, Open addition, PRNG is a source register for Street Map and Geonames) and treating the BDOT10k database. Currently, work them as references. The above-mentioned is also underway to harmonise administra- databases (or rather systems enabling their tive divisions within the cadastral precincts functioning) make it possible to handle from the PRG and to use their identifi- data that are located anywhere in the ers to diachronically identify secular and world (we are not limited to a specific area as in the case of national resources). 29 Topographic objects related to hydrography (hydronyms) and collected Moreover, these databases provide data during the work on the “Historical atlas of Poland” also have identifiers that are ready to use. However, the Open from the electronic dictionary of Polish hydronyms (“Elektroniczny Słownik Hyrdonimów Polski”, https://eshp.ijp.pan.pl/, accessed on: April 29, 2020), Street Map data model does not include but we cannot be sure if these identifiers will be stable and unchangeable. historical data and object identifiers can

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Identifiers 83131 (a) Variable Settlement

Identifiers Names VariableSettlementIdentifiers StartsAt EndsAt 155657 Stara Nieszawa 83131 1460-09-25 1554-12-31 83131 Podgórz 83131 1555-01-01 2016-12-31 (b) Manifestation of Name

Identifiers SettlementTypeIdentifiers VariableSettlementIdentifiers StartsAt EndsAt 155657 2 83131 1460-09-25 1611-11-06 155656 3 83131 1611-11-07 1833-03-26 155655 2 83131 1833-03-27 1924-12-31 155654 3 83131 1925-01-01 1938-03-31 83131 61 83131 2016-01-01 2016-12-31 (c) Manifestation of Type

Identifiers the_geom VariableSettlementIdentifiers StartsAt EndsAt 155660 POINT(18.5932311869783 83131 1460-09-25 1554-12-31 52.9988146722835) 83131 POINT(18.5916356118256 83131 1555-01-01 2016-12-31 52.9921219054298) (d) Manifestation of Location

Identifiers PartIdentifiers WholeIdentifiers StartsAt EndsAt 7 83131 112602 1938-01-01 2016-12-31 (e) Manifestation of Mereology

Identifiers Names VariableSettlement- Types Mereology Geometries Name- Type- Location- Mereology- StartsAt EndsAt Identifiers Identifiers Identifiers Identifiers Identifiers 83363 Stara Nieszawa 83131 2 Null POINT- 155657 155657 155660 Null 1460-09-25 1554-12-31 (18.5932311869783 52.9988146722835) 83364 Podgórz 83131 2 Null POINT- 83131 155657 83131 Null 1555-01-01 1611-11-06 (18.5916356118256 52.9921219054298) 83365 Podgórz 83131 3 Null POINT- 83131 155656 83131 Null 1611-11-07 1833-03-26 (18.5916356118256 52.9921219054298) 83366 Podgórz 83131 2 Null POINT- 83131 155655 83131 Null 1833-03-27 1924-12-31 (18.5916356118256 52.9921219054298) 83367 Podgórz 83131 3 Null POINT- 83131 155654 83131 Null 1925-01-01 1937-12-31 (18.5916356118256 52.9921219054298) 83368 Podgórz 83131 3 112602 POINT- 83131 155654 83131 7 1938-01-01 1938-03-31 (18.5916356118256 52.9921219054298) 83369 Podgórz 83131 3 112602 POINT- 83131 0 83131 7 1938-04-01 2015-12-31 (18.5916356118256 52.9921219054298) 83370 Podgórz 83131 61 112602 POINT- 83131 83131 83131 7 2016-01-01 2016-12-31 (18.5916356118256 52.9921219054298) (f) Aggregated Manifestation Fig. 1. Information about the 83131 settlement in the database. Source: authors’ own elaboration change (it is a very rare, but potentially useful at the time of harmonisation) and possible situation).30 If we compare the we want to link it to something, we have to communities gathered around Geonames create an appropriate data model. The De- and Wikidata and their operating models, partment of Historical Atlas has created Wikidata seems to be the best choice for a data model for the settlement network handling the data harmonisation process, and administrative divisions which takes even though (or maybe this is actually the not only the current reality, but also the reason behind it) location is not the main entire history into account. Its underlying priority of this database. principle is that each geographical object If we have an attribute in the form of an exists independently of time only in the identifier for an external dataset (which is form of an identifier. However, all its features such as name, location, type and 30 Can I depend on the country/city IDs of OSM?, “Geographic Information Systems” (https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/279755/can-i-depend- mereology change over time, so they are on-the-country-city-ids-of-osm?rq=1, accessed on: April 29, 2020). not elements of the identifier. In figure 1

Studia Geohistorica • Nr 08. 2020 189 Zapiski… Grzegorz Myrda, Tomasz Panecki

you can see tables of the database contain- Problems of a more technical nature, ing information about a settlement with which are also relevant from a substantive the 83131 identifier. The settlement was point of view, include the issue of using once called Stara Nieszawa and later internal or external identifiers, as well as changed its name to Podgórz. Similarly, the scope of referring the data manager’s as time passed, other features of this set- resources to external datasets (PRNG/ tlement changed. The value of 83131 is PRG, Geonames, Wikidata, etc.). When a persistent identifier for the settlement we decide how identifiers will be man- within the database managed by the De- aged technically, we actually decide how partment of Historical Atlas. the outside world will assess the credibil- Geographical objects are also linked to ity of our claim that our identifiers will information about corresponding contem- be persistent. The criteria seem simple: porary objects which constitute one of the if we have a lot of resources to share and sets of attributes with relevant dates. These at the same time we have, or can have, are PRNG and PRG identifiers. Thanks the necessary IT infrastructure, then we to that, it is possible to move from any should decide to use internal identifiers historical object to its contemporary ver- (that are managed within the institution sion and see its entire history. of the data manager). The question re- mains how much is a lot and whether we Discussion and conclusion are able to provide the appropriate infra- The discussion on stable identifiers for structure. Otherwise, external identifiers historical geographical data seems to con- are normally used, which means that the cern two aspects: theoretical, related to the process of managing identifiers is entrusted harmonisation of resources as such and its to an external organisation that usually substantive correctness, and technical or specialises in this type of activity. A typi- practical, regarding the choice of a way cal example of an external identifier is of designing persistent identifiers and as- the DOI since it is generated and hosted signing them to resources. outside the organisation which is the data Both aspects are related and cannot manager. If we see that a resource has an be considered independently. Scenarios external identifier, we do not have to take in which the same settlements have dif- the data manager’s word for whether it ferent identifiers or different settlements is a persistent identifier. As for internal are described with the same identifiers are identifiers, in addition to the statement by unwanted; they may result from a lack of the data manager arguing that an identifier cooperation between historians and com- is persistent, we have to believe this claim puter scientists. Developing and adopting based on our knowledge about the basic rules for harmonisation and identifica- principles of the functioning of persistent tion of historical data in time and space identifiers, the risks associated with the is crucial to ensure the correct modelling operation of specific IT infrastructures and of these data in databases. It is important the internal organisational solutions of the to include a possibility of expressing uncer- data manager. tainty in the case of such data, as historians There is no doubt that it is important are not always able to make a clear and and necessary to include an attribute with certain interpretation.31 an external identifier in a dataset under development, but the question remains as to the extent of such harmonisation: is it 31 G. Myrda, B. Szady, A. Ławrynowicz, Modeling and presenting incomplete and uncertain data on historical settlement units, “Transactions in GIS,” enough to include an identifier for one se- 24 (2), 2020, pp. 355–370 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tgis.12609). lected resource or should we adhere to the

190 Studia Geohistorica • Nr 08. 2020 The problem of using persistent identifiers for historical geographical objects Zapiski… principle of “the more, the better”? More solution would be to create a central list linked datasets mean, on the one hand, of identifiers for historical geographical ob- greater analytical capacity but, on the jects to which the data managers would re- other, difficulty in ensuring coherence -be fer. However, such a solution would require tween these datasets which increases with the involvement and agreement of many the number of linked resources. The ideal parties, institutions and projects. 

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Persistent and unique Identifiers, ed. D. Broeder, Southall H., Constructing a Vision of Britain through M. Dreyer, M. Kemps-Snijders, A. Witt, M. Kupietz, Time: Integrating old maps, census reports, travel writ- P. Wittenburg, ver. 4, Common Language Resources ing, and much else, into an online historical atlas, and Technology Infrastructure 2009 (https://office. in: Historical atlas: Its concepts and methodologies, clarin.eu/pp/D2R-2b.pdf, accessed on: February ed. P.K. Bol, Seoul 2016. 20, 2020). Southall H., Aucott P., Expressing history through Persistent identifiers best practices, CEOS Data Stew- a geo-spatial ontology, “ISPRS International Journal ardship Interest Group, ver. 1.1 (https://earth.esa. of Geo-Information,” 8 (8), 2019. int/documents/1656065/2265358/CEOS-Per- Szady B., Spatio-temporal databases as research tool in sistent-Identifier-Best-Practices, accessed on: De- historical geography, “Geographia Polonica,” 89 (3), cember 17, 2019). 2016. “Pleiades” (https://pleiades.stoa.org/, accessed on: April Van Uytvanck D., PID policy summary, ver. 1, Com- 29, 2020). mon Language Resources and Technology Infra- Polczynski M., Polczynski M., Beauplan’s Ukraine: structure 2014 (https://www.clarin.eu/sites/default/ open access georeferenced databases for studies of early files/CE-2013-0340-PID-policy-summary.pdf, modern history of Central and Eastern Europe, “Mis- accessed on: April 24, 2020). cellanea Geographica,” 23 (3), 2019. “Wikidata” (https://www.wikidata.org/, accessed on: Rozporządzenie Ministra Administracji i Cyfryzacji April 29, 2020).  z dnia 14 lutego 2012 r. w sprawie państwowego rejestru nazw geograficznych, Dz.U. 2012, poz. 309.

Problem stosowania trwałych identyfikatorów odnośnie do historycznych obiektów geograficznych Streszczenie Autorzy tekstu omawiają stosowanie trwałych własnej, lokalizacji, typu obiektu i relacji mere- identyfikatorów (PID) odnośnie do historycz- ologicznych (część–całość). Proces ten pozwala nych obiektów geograficznych. Rozpoczynają od przypisać im trwałe PID-y, identyfikujące obiekty zdefiniowania PID-ów jako stabilnych i trwa- z różnych zasobów. W artykule omówiono i pod- łych identyfikatorów, które pozwalają precyzyjnie dano ocenie koncepcje wykorzystania PID-ów ujednoznacznić zasoby. Identyfikatory takie po- w różnych projektach. Najczęściej stosowane są winny mieć następujące cechy: unikalność (jeden identyfikatory wewnętrzne, chociaż nie mają za- zasób – jeden PID), stabilność (konkretny PID gwarantowanej stabilności i tylko niektóre z nich nie będzie nigdy przypisany do innego zasobu), spełniają kryteria pozwalające zaklasyfikować je trwałość (PID zawsze będzie dostępny), obsłu- jako PID-y. Pojawiają się również odniesienia do giwanie różnych stopni rozproszenia (możliwość zewnętrznych baz danych, takich jak Geonames odesłania do różnych danych w zależności od lub Wikidata. W ostatniej części pracy autorzy ich rozproszenia lub generalizacji), zgodność ze omawiają model wykorzystywany w Zakładzie specyfikacją URI (niezależność od konkretnych Atlasu Historycznego Instytutu Historii im. Ta- technologii), brak wewnętrznej semantyki (brak deusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Do cech czy atrybutów zasobu), obsługa metadanych każdej osady przypisany jest PID pozbawiony (ważne dla sztucznej inteligencji) i skalowalność semantyki, dlatego wszystkie atrybuty (nazwa, (system powinien efektywnie funkcjonować przy lokalizacja, typ) są zależne od czasu. Odnośnie wzroście liczby identyfikatorów). Następnie au- do identyfikatorów odsyłających do zasobów torzy omawiają kwestię harmonizacji danych na zewnętrznych wykorzystywane są polskie reje- przykładzie osad i jednostek administracyjnych. stry nazw i granic, chociaż w przyszłości projekt Obiekty takie można identyfikować diachro- będzie też korzystał z Wikidata.  nicznie lub synchronicznie na podstawie: nazwy

192 Studia Geohistorica • Nr 08. 2020 The problem of using persistent identifiers for historical geographical objects Zapiski…

Grzegorz Myrda, MSc – research assistant in the Department of Historical Atlas (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences). A graduate of the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Com- puter Science of the Silesian University of Technology. For over twenty years he has been dealing with issues related to Geographical Information Systems, and recently he has been focusing on the applications of GIS in historical research. Author of books on GIS and publications at the crossways of history and computer science ([email protected])

Tomasz Panecki, PhD – assistant professor in the Department of Historical Atlas (Tadeusz Manteuffel In- stitute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences). He obtained a master’s degree in history and geography and defended a doctoral thesis in the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies of the University of Warsaw. He is particularly interested in historical cartography, digital editions of historical maps and cartographic representa- tion of historical data ([email protected]) mgr Grzegorz Myrda – asystent w Zakładzie Atlasu Historycznego w Instytucie Historii im. Tadeusza Man- teuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Absolwent Wydziału Automatyki, Elektroniki i Informatyki Politechniki Ślą- skiej. Od ponad dwudziestu lat zajmuje się zagadnieniami związanymi z Systemami Informacji Geograficznej, a ostatnio – zastosowaniem GIS w badaniach historycznych. Autor książek poświęconych GIS oraz publikacji z pogranicza historii i informatyki ([email protected]) dr Tomasz Panecki – adiunkt w Zakładzie Atlasu Historycznego w Instytucie Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Absolwent geografii i historii. Na Wydziale Geografii i Studiów Regionalnych Uniwersy- tetu Warszawskiego przygotował pracę doktorską pt. Koncepcja struktury bazy danych historycznych obiektów topograficznych. Jego zainteresowania badawcze to przede wszystkim kartografia historyczna, cyfrowe edy- cje dawnych map oraz sposoby historycznej reprezentacji rzeczywistości geograficznej w źródłach pisanych i kartograficznych ([email protected])

The research presented in this paper was supported by the Cartography at the service of political reforms in the times of Stanisław August Poniatowski – a critical elaboration of ‘Geographical-statistical description of the parishes in the Kingdom of Poland’ and the maps of the palatinates by Karol Perthées (11H 18 0122 87) grant funded by National Programme for the Development of Humanities.

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