This is the first of many emails from the discussion list MapHist
regarding the metadata or cataloging of maps that appear in online
collections. There are some interesting comments. I won't forward all
the emails but suggest that if you're involved in creation of metadata
or cataloging of older maps -- you might want to subscribe to maphist
and/or take a look at the archives related to this topic.
Angie
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Map collections on the web: Only images is not enough
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 12:41:40 +0100
From: Peter van der Krogt <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To:
To: maps-l
CC: [log in to unmask]
Forwarded from a MapHist list message (when you hit 'reply' you're replying to the whole list)
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All
Although the development to make map collections
digital accessible is a good one for the history
of cartography - it should also be important for
the understanding and use of maps in historical
research. Many collections spend quite a sum for
the optimal scanning of the maps and the
development of a good userfriendly interface, but
forget that good cartobibliographical information
and notes on the map contents are just as important as good images.
We were just informed about the maps of Africa
put on the web by the Northwestern University.
Taking just a single map of the Africa collection
as an example, the map of the Empire of Priest John
http://fedora.library.northwestern.edu/fedora/get/inu:inu-afrmap-3805126/inu:NWUCollectionBDef/getDefaultView
The complete information given is (numbers
between square brackets refer to my comment below):
Title: Abissinorum sive Pretiosi Joannis imperiu~
[1] Congi regni in Africa Christiani nova descriptio.
[2] Beschrijuinge van het Koninghrijck der Abissiner oste Paep. Jans lant.
Description: Relief shown pictorially. Verso
pages numbered 636 and 633. [3] Detached from
Gerard Mercator : Atlas sive cosmographicae
meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati
figura. Originally published by Jodocus Hondius.
[4] Cartographer: Mercator, Gerhard, 1512-1594.
[5] Date: ca. 1630
Size: 1 map ; 32 x 47 cm.
Place of publication: Amsterdam
Subjects:
Africa, Northeast
More information...
Related items:
host: [6] Mercator, Gerard, ca.
1565-1656.creatorAtlas sive cosmographicae
meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati
figura.Amsterdam : Hendrik Hondius, ca. 1630.
Note: Place names in Latin. Text on verso in
French.Detached from Gerard Mercator : Atlas sive
cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et
fabricati figura. Originally published by Jodocus Hondius.
[4] statement of responsibility - Gerhard Mercator.
My comment
[1] Congi.. is the title of the inset map.
[2] This is a Dutch title which does not appear
on the map. it looks like the title of the text
to the map of that region in the 1598
Caert-Thresoor (And it has a transcription error: "oste" has to be "ofte")
[3] With this information, and the fact that the
text is in French (given under "More
information"), it is in my Atlantes Neerlandici
easy to find that the map is from the French
edition of Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas sive
cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et
fabricati figura, published by Henricus Hondius
in 1628 (atlas 1:114) or from Gerardi Mercatoris
et I. Hondii Atlas ou Representation du Monde
Universel, published by Henricus Hondius in 1633.
The map was originally published in Gerardi
Mercatoris Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes
de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura, published
by Jodocus Hondius and Cornelis Claesz. in 1606.
(P.S. From the description of the map of Morocco
from probably the same atlas it become clear the
the literature used for identifying the atlas was
Koeman's Collections of map at atlases of 1961....).
[4] The map, published 12 years after Mercator's
dead, has no relation with Mercator. It was added
by Hondius/Claesz. to the set of Mercator maps,
but, that does not make Mercator the cartographer.
[5] see no. 3, the date is 1628 or 1633,
copperplate of 1606. In my opinion, the date
should be given here as "1606 (published 1628 or
1633)". Interesting detail: in the table of
contents the map is listed as dating from "1530".
[6] Here Mercator's dates are given as "ca.
1565-1656" (these dates also at Mercator's map of
Africa), while the correct dates are given before.
These comments concerns only the
cartobibliographical details. To give those
correct is the least the library has to supply.
And with c. 35 of the 113 maps originating from
the Low Countries a search in the most recent
literature would have been appropriate.
Without proper bibliographical information the
map is almost useless for further research. For a
map curator of map historian this bibliographical
details are not difficult to find; for other
users - the general public and researchers in
other fields - it is much more difficult.
Just as important is the information about the contents of the map.
The descriptions gives only "Relief shown
pictorially" and "Place names in Latin" (why at
two different places in the description?).
This is of course very insufficent to describe
the contents of the map (in fact, both statements
are valid for almost all maps from the 16th and 17th century).
For this particular map could have been said that
it was copied after the map Presbiteri Iohannis
sive Abissinorum Imperii Descriptio, published by
Abraham Ortelius, 1573, and the inset map of
Congo copies after the inset map on Ortelius' map
Fessae et Marocchi Regna Africae Celeberr. (1595).
With this information, the user will know that
the map image is not from "c. 1630" or even
"1606" (the publication dates), but at least from 1573 and 1595respectively.
Further could have been said that Priest John is
a legendary Christian king about whom rumors had
circulated since the twelfth century. Initially,
people placed his territory in Asia, but since
the early sixteenth century it was said to be in
East Africa. After contact had been established
at the beginning of the sixteenth century, an
extensive Portuguese delegation led by Francisco
Alvares traveled to East Africa in 1520. They
were hospitably welcomed by the Coptic Christian
ruler David II (1508-1540), though they were not
allowed to return to Portugal for six
years. Alvares put his experiences down in
writing; in 1540, he published his account, Ho
preste Ioam das Indias: verdadera informaçam das
terras do Preste Joam das Indias (Lisbon, 1540).
That means that the information on the map does
not date from "1606", not even from "1573", but
from c. 1520/40. With comparative research has to
be done to find out if Ortelius and/or Hondius
have added information from other sources or that
the information on their maps is for 100% based on Alvares.
The map of Congo is derived from one of the maps
in the travel account written by the Portuguese
Duarte Lopez and published by Filippo Pigafetta
in Relatione del realme di Congo et delle circonvicine contrade (Rome,1591).
Main references:
Bodenstein, Wulf. 1998. "Ortelius' Maps of
Africa." In Abraham Ortelius and the First Atlas:
Essays commemorating the Quadricentennial of his
Death, 1598-1998, ed. Marcel van den Broecke,
Peter van der Krogt, and Peter Meurer, 185-207. 't Goy-Houten: HESPublishers.
Broecke, Marcel P.R. van den. 1996. Ortelius
atlas maps: An illustrated Guide. 't Goy-Houten: HES Publishers.
Krogt, Peter van der. 1997. Koemans Atlantes
Neerlandici: New Edition, Vol. I: The Folio
Atlases Published by Gerard Mercator, Jodocus
Hondius, Henricus Hondius, Johannes Janssonius
and Their Successors. t Goy-Houten: HES.
Krogt, Peter van der. 2002. "The Map Image of
Africa in Dutch Atlases of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries." In Dutch Geography and
Africa, International Geographical Union, Section
The Netherlands, 118-158. Nederlandse
Geografische Studies, 300. Utrecht: Koninklijk
Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap; Faculteit
Ruimtelijke Wetenschappen, Universiteit Utrecht, 2002.
These are just some notes. It is not specially
aimed at the site of the Northwestern University.
You see the same lack of sufficient or correct information in other sites.
A few other examples:
The Braun & Hogenberg maps of the Biblioteca
Ricciardiana. On
http://www.istitutodatini.it/biblio/images/it/riccard/10939/htm/10941vI.htm
the contents of volume 5 is listed (all items are
links to the images). There is no
meta-information, except for the identification
of the towns. Looking at no. 29 "Herderwict [?]".
The transcription is not correct, the title is:
Herderwyck. The question mark indicates that they
did not know which town was meant. It existing
litature it is not difficult to find that it is
Harderwijk in the Dutch province of Gelderland.
The digitized Laor collections is much better,
http://www.jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/maps/pal/html/eng/pal002368762.htm
at least there is a note giving the origin of the
map. But, here also the autorship of the
Mercator-Hondius atlas is given to Mercator. The
information on the Laor collection is more
complete than that of the Historic Cities
collection of the same university (http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/)
(P.S. I tried to check the David Rumsey
collection too, but it was too complicated to see
this. I had to download a special program which I
don't like, I had to allow pop-ups which I don't like too).
I would strongly suggest collections who want to
make their collection available via internet, to
spent also attention to the information given to
the map. Only images is not enough.
This will be one of the topic in my contribution
to the special session on cartobibliography at the Berne conference in July.
It would be interesting to learn the ideas from
the other MapHisters about the following questions.
1. What is the purpose to map map collections
available on the web. Is it just to show
colourfull images or is it a research tool?
2. Is simple cartobibliographical information
("catalogue information") sufficient? (thus
title, cartographer, scale, size, and publication date).
3. Should information be given on the contents of
the map (see my example on the Priest John map above).
4. Are references to cartobibliographies,
articles and monographs necessary or not?
Peter
At 23:23 12-1-2007, you wrote:
>This is a MapHist list message (when you hit
>'reply' you're replying to the whole list)
>o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o + o +
>I am forwarding the following message from the
>H-Net listserv H-Luso-Africa. It is nice to have
>this collection available online.
>
>Best wishes,
>Jack
>
>From: Gerhard Seibert, IICT Lisbon, [log in to unmask]
>Date: 12 January 2007
>
>
>Nortwestern University Library has made
>available online 16th- Early 20th Century Maps
>of Africa. The site features digital copies of
>113 antique maps of Africa and accompanying text
>dating from 1530-1915. All scanned maps are
>authentic and originally collected by the
>Melville J. Herskovits Library of African
>Studies (or the Africana Library) at Northwestern University. See at
>http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/mapsofafrica/
>
>--
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Dr Peter van der Krogt
Map Historian, Explokart Research Program
Faculty of Geo-sciences, University of Utrecht
P.O. Box 80.115
3508 TC UTRECHT, The Netherlands
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Homepage: <http://cartography.geo.uu.nl/vanderkrogt>
MapHist: <http://www.maphist.nl>
Genealogy: <http://www.vanderkrogt.net>
Elementymology: <http://elements.vanderkrogt.net>
Columbus Monuments: <http://columbus.vanderkrogt.net>
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYY PER ANGUSTA AD AUGUSTA YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
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