-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Chronograms on maps
Date:   Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:06:34 +0100
From:   Tony Campbell <[log in to unmask]>
To:     *Maps-L <[log in to unmask]>

Chronograms on maps
-----------------------

If you saw this, on a map or a building:

'IgneIs qVas MIttIs reX prVsse ab parCe sagIttIs Intro VIX I bIs neCet
absqVe rVbore reDIbIs'

you might wonder what it was.  In fact it is a hidden date.  If you treat
the capital letters as Roman numerals:

M=1000, D=500, C=100, L=50, X=10, V=5, I=1

and add them up, you arrive at the map's date, in this case 1757.

I have recently posted a page about map chronograms to the 'Map History'
site <
http://www.maphistory.info/chronograms.html >.  This lists the 30 examples
so far identified [see the 'Census'].

This message has two purposes:

1. to alert those who encounter or catalogue early maps to the
bibliographical value of a chronogram

2. to seek information about further map chronograms.

If you have any comments about the webpage, can point to further web
illustrations, or have details of unrecorded examples, please contact me
OFFLIST.

Thank you

Tony Campbell
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'Map History / History of Cartography: THE Gateway to the Subject'
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