by Magda Kowalczuk

Maps often accompanied military reports, and it was a treat to come across a neat example of such a set of documents whilst cataloguing maps of the UK in the Topographical Collection of George III.  ‘A Report on the general Plan of Defences, for the security of the arsenal of Plymouth, by Lieutenant Colonel Dixon chief engineer of the Division’ (Maps K.Top.11.79.), dated 10 January 1780, comes in a form of a stitched booklet on three sheets  of watermarked paper with golden edges. ‘No expense spared’ – as one of my fellow cataloguers put it.

Matthew Dixon, 'A general plan of Plymouth Sound and the adjacent country...' London, 1780. MS. (detail) British Library Maps K.Top 11.79

The author, Matthew Dixon, was appointed a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1777, and later become a Chief Engineer Colonel, assigned to the Plymouth Division. He was also involved in surveying the county of Devon, drawings of which were retained by the Ordnance Survey (see corresponding maps in the British Library here).

As a Chief Engineer Colonel Dixon reported the necessary changes to the plan of defences of Plymouth Sound to the Master General and to the Board of Ordnance, as follows:

'[…] as the harbour of Plymouth became of importance to the Navy, several alternations were made to the batteries fronting the sound and the North Channel, as well as to the batteries on St. Nicholas Island; yet, I am of opinion, their united strength as established in preceding years, could not have defended the North and West Channels, without the aid of other batteries placed on high ground, to take ships in stern as they might attempt to penetrate the Harbour'.

After explaining the ‘reason for removing the guns which presented inwards to the harbour’, the Colonel moves to alterations made to the placement of batteries and their artilleries:
‘The battery on the right of the lines marked C on the Plan, is furnished with 6, 24 pounders, and is intended to cooperate with the battery on Mount Wise in the Defence of the interior passage of Wester-king.’

‘The cavalier battery on the left of the lines marked V on the Plan, is furnished with 7, 12 pounders, and is intended to cover the Ordnance Arsenal and to strengthen the weaker part of the lines.’
 
The Colonel then goes on to propose that ‘the positions for ships to serve as floating batteries at the entrance as also within the harbour’, where

‘The ships marked 9, 10 & 11, are proposed to be armed with heavy artillery, to defend the interior passage near the Navy Yard, and to annoy the Enemy, after they had taken possession of Maker Hill, and to oblige them to send batteries to drive them away, before they could advance to the attack of the Obelisk redout’.

As for the map itself, it is a skilfully drawn plan of Plymouth Sound, including St. Nicholas Island and the citadel, docks and fortifications. A three-dimensional impression of the area is achieved by means of shading and pictorial relief, both executed to perfection. The background is filled by the Colonel with inland batteries, marked A to Z, and with “floating batteries”, marked 1 to 15.

There is a human quality to even these military objects. As clichéd as it may seem, there is something surprisingly touching in the fact that the Colonel’s handwriting is not equally immaculate throughout the whole report, revealing a slight rush or impatience towards the end; the fact the map had to be ‘revised and corrected’ by somebody else and shows the marks overwritten and altered. The Colonel’s strategic arrangements unravel right in front of our eyes.
They were subsequently revisited and revised to be fit for a presentation to the Board of Ordnance. Nevertheless, the human element in this particular object is apparent and it is a pleasure to be able to describe it in a slightly different way to how it is described in a bibliographic catalogue record.

PORTER, W. , (1889). History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, volume I. London, Longmans, Green.
HODSON, Y., Ordnance Survey drawings 1789-c. 1840. Introduction: T. Campbell. Research Publications, 1989.

by Kate Marshall

January 29th sees the anniversary of the death of King George III in 1820.  While the Georgian contribution to society in a myriad of ways is currently being explored through the marvellous British Library exhibition Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Making of Modern Britain (Until 11 March 2014), another project is also underway to catalogue and digitise King George III’s personal collection of maps and views.  More information about the project and how you can contribute is available at http://support.bl.uk/Page/King-George-IIIs-Topographical-Collection  

Four cataloguers began the task of recording the treasures of this collection, last catalogued in 1829 with only brief records and lacking much important information, in the latter part of 2013.  Some of their findings so far are recorded here.

Having been tasked with the cataloguing of maps of the Americas and the Spanish Empire from the collection, almost every map examined has revealed something of interest or note, whilst a cursory overview of these regions has revealed a glimpse of the collector and his character.  A few maps in particular have caught my eye thus far:

•    Firstly, and because everyone likes a bit of espionage and subterfuge, I have been struck by the interchangeable role of cartographer and spy.

A fascinating and beautiful manuscript map on vellum, complete with a rather fawning acrostic to James Duke of York, that is signed "J.S. Americanus" – John Scott (1632?-1704) adventurer, spy and, according to his entry in the Dictionary for National Biography, quite the character.

PASCATWAY RIVER in NEW ENGLAND by I: S: Maps K.Top 120.27

Intended for presentation to Prince George of Denmark and Norway, Duke of Cumberland (and Lord High Admiral), this manuscript map of Placentia in Newfoundland was drawn by Michel de Monsegur who was seemingly lured into the service of Queen Anne by payment.

LE PLAN DU PORT DE P. Presenté a Son Altesse Royalle Monseigneur le Prince de Danemark par Michel de Monsegur 1708. Maps K.Top 119.34

This detailed plan of Quebec was drawn by Patrick Mackellar, a military engineer who had spent time imprisoned in the city by the French before being released on parole to produce a map that would aid the British in their subsequent capture of the city, a pivotal moment during the French and Indian War

PLAN of the TOWN of QUEBECK in CANADA enlarged from Bellin's Plan with Additions. Maps K.Top 119.34


•    Secondly, the collection has revealed a cartographer seemingly not recorded anywhere else.
 

Although this map (Maps K.Top.120.5.2 TAB END.) was published in London, Howard Mitchelson is keen to state his previous American residency (and perhaps his knowledge and authority in matters cartographic, by association).  Neither the British Library nor the Library of Congress catalogues list other maps by Mitchelson and his name does not appear in Tooley’s Dictionary of Mapmakers nor in British Map Engravers by Laurence Worms and Ashley Baynton-Williams. 

A NEW & CORRECT Map OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, taken from the latest actual surveys; exhibiting a correct view of the location of the different States of the Union. Of the Post Roads, situations, connexions and Distances of the POST OFFICES, COUNTIES, RIVERS, LAKES, PRINCIPAL TOWNS &c. With a general view of UPPER & LOWER CANADA, NEW BRUNSWICK, NEWFOUNDLAND, & LABRADOR. Published by HOWARD MITCHELSON late Resident in the United States. LONDON, July 14, 1809. Maps K.Top 120.5.2.TAB END

Can anyone else shed any light on this American expat?


•    Thirdly, and this is not just for the carto-bibliophiles amongst us with an eye for detail, some of the printed maps in the collection appear to be previously unrecorded editions or states.  The differences between a copy of a map with text on the back and one from the King’s Topographical Collection with no text, for example, may not seem particularly important, but such detail adds to the “story” and history of the map – when exactly was it printed in this version, in what sequence (was it published first with text or without), by whom was it printed without text and perhaps even for whom was it printed in this “special” format?

This is a well-known and early map of New England that was published in Amsterdam during the so-called “golden age” of Dutch cartography in the early-seventeenth century.  Editions of the map were published in atlases with Latin, French, German, English, Dutch or Spanish text to the back describing the region.  However, this example of the map from the King’s Topographical Collection has no text supporting a theory that perhaps the map was printed and sold separately, in addition to its appearance in well-documented atlases.

NOVA ANGLIA NOVVM BELGIVM et VIRGINIA by Johannes Janssonius. Maps K.Top.120.9.

Moll's map was published in London in the early- eighteenth century.  The copperplate from which this map was printed underwent a series of changes throughout its history.  The example of the map in the King’s Topographical Collection has minor variations in the panel of text at lower right that are not seemingly recorded elsewhere. All very interesting in establishing the sequence in which alterations to the printing plate were made!

Herman Moll, NEWFOUNDLAND St. LAURENCE BAY, The Fishing Banks, Acadia, and Part of New SCOTLAND.  Maps K.Top.119.98.

 

 

 

 

By Peter Barber

Rogier van der Weyden’s painting of St Luke painting the Virgin  of about 1434 is one of the treasures of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  During a recent visit I realized it could also be interpreted as a symbolic medieval world map – with another, more familiar, diagrammatic world map in the painting for good measure!


Rogier van der Weyden, St. Luke Painting the Virgin, ca. 1434, oil and tempera on oak. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The work in situ.

Fifteenth century Flemish artists loved to play visual tricks: Robert Campin, for instance turned a wicker fire screen into a halo for the Virgin in   a painting created at almost exactly the same time  as Rogier’s and now in the National Gallery in London. 

Follower of Robert Campin, the Virgin and Child before a Firescreen, ca. 1444. Oil on panel. © Copyright The National Gallery, London 2014

In Jan van Eyck’s painting of the Chancellor Rollin adoring the Virgin and Child, now in the Louvre, painted shortly before and which served as the model for Rogier van der Weyden, the windows above the main scene are square and, despite, their stained glass, seem not to have any special significance.   When I looked at the Boston painting hanging on the wall in the museum my eye was immediately drawn to the circular window occupying the position of the square windows in the van Eyck.  I would not have noticed it if I had viewed a scan or a conventional reproduction.  Van der Weyden skillfully shows a horizontal and a vertical roof beam intersecting the window and turning it into a reversed TO map, with the vertical beam representing the Mediterranean, the horizontal beam the rivers Don and the Nile, with Africa to the left and Europe to the right of the vertical beam and with Asia occupying the lower half of the circle.

Rogier (detail showing the map)

Looking  below the window, one sees that the structure of the painting, despite the exclusively Netherlandish scenes depicted in it,  reflects that of the map.   The river in the middle becomes the Mediterranean with ‘Africa’ to its left and ‘Europe’ to its right – and the scene containing the Virgin is placed – quite correctly – in Asia!

Rogier (detail showing the map and landscape)

Despite frequent assumptions to the contrary, medieval world maps continued to be very popular in fifteenth century Europe even after the Portuguese voyages from 1420 highlighted their geographical inadequacies.   They are to be seen in Flemish illuminated manuscripts (for instance one of  the British Library’s copies of Jean Corbechon’s Livre des proprietez des choses) ,  in the earliest printed books illustrating texts by Isidore of Seville and other late Roman encyclopedists and are mentioned in later inventories, such as those of the prints owned by Ferdinand Columbus or the goods of Henry VIII.    TO maps continued to play a significant symbolic role in theological and philosophical contexts - as the maps in this painting of Rogier van der Weyden demonstrate.

[TO diagram from Etymologies] Augsburg: Gunther Zainer, 1472. woodblock. British Library IB.5441 - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/magnificentmaps/2013/06/on-the-river.html#sthash.ztgdpCIZ.dpuf

[TO diagram from Etymologies] Augsburg: Gunther Zainer, 1472. woodblock. British Library IB.5441

[TO diagram from Etymologies] Augsburg: Gunther Zainer, 1472. woodblock. British Library IB.5441 - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/magnificentmaps/2013/06/on-the-river.html#sthash.ztgdpCIZ.dpuf

Earlier this week, georeferencing of the Library's collection of first-edition Goad mapping of British and Irish towns was completed!

In just seven weeks, the work of a great many people brought order and place to what was previously simply 2,700 digital image files. The precise location of each scanned map - for the over 50 cities and towns mapped by the Chas. E Goad firm 1886-1930 - is now known. Places small (Goole, covered in just three maps) and  large were included, with the giant of London making up more than 1,000 maps, as shown in below graphic. All maps may be accessed here.

"Thank you" to all the BL Georeferencer participants, and in particular to two volunteers who, since the release of 20 November, have contributed an outstanding amount of time and effort. Dr Susan Major added over 10,000 control points to the Goad maps, and in addition played an active role in offering feedback and suggestions. Maurice Nicholson, a past Top Contributor, submitted the most points for the military maps, and his contributions to Goad were second only to Susan.

What's next? We have a team of volunteer reviewers - dedicated participants invited to review for their skill and expertise - to quality-check submitted metadata. Maps requiring further work will be released back to the crowd, so expect to see maps become available over the next few weeks and months. Check back at http://www.bl.uk/maps/

Georeferencing the Library's Goad plans of British and Irish towns is progressing well.  I've been asked several times, however, about the miniscule slices of maps that we're asking you to place. What are these obscure and tiny pieces of maps, and how to tell where they are located?Pieces such as above are portions of original paper map sheets as published by Chas. E. Goad Ltd. When a block or other important area extended beyond the bounds of the page, it was simply printed elsewhere on the sheet, with a reference to its location. This was done for reasons of economy; key areas could be included without adding to the cost of paper and printing. In the sheet below, the dark outline indicates an inset, with the block number "8" identifying its location on the main map.

 

So how can a user of BL Georeferencer know what sheet a bit appears on? All insets are linked to the main map page on which they appear. Choose the "This Map" tab within the Georeferencer application. By clicking "Original web presentation", the bit is shown on the larger map sheet which will include a reference to its location.
These map "bits" are important to place in order to provide the full available mapping of an area! Above image of the Deptford Bridge area of London shows the "bit" adjacent to its location on the main map sheet.

Once properly georeferenced, these small pieces will continue and complete the maps in their correct places - an eloquent solution to the problem of viewing insets on paper maps!

Try out BL Georeferencer if you are up for a visual, geographic, and historic challenge. Locating the remaining pieces is a like solving a Victorian map puzzle!

A new and correct plan of the city of Bath and places adjacent, produced in 1750 (and in numerous further editions thereafter) included a number of very useful points of information for the Georgian visitor-tourist to Bath, which during the 18th century became the incredibly popular spa resort we recognise today.

A new and correct map of the city of Bath and places adjacent. Published in Bath, 1750. Engraving. British Library Maps *5030.(17.).

Local publishers were rather smart in noting the market for a concise map with added historical descriptions, detailing things like the postal service, and most importantly the ‘Rules relating to Bath as they stand in the Pump Room.’

These are the rules of etiquette to be observed when attending Bath’s oh so fashionable assembly rooms. The pump room was where families new to the town would announce themselves. Created and maintained by a man called Beau Nash – Bath’s unofficial master of ceremonies – the rules provide a brilliant insight into society and public spaces, a map of society. Observe

7. that no gentleman or lady take it ill that another dances before them except such as have no pretence to dance at all.

8. That the elder ladies and children be content with a second bench at ye ball as being past or not come to perfection.

9. That ye younger ladies take notice of how many eyes observe them. N.B. this does not extend to ye have at alls.

10. That all repeat of such lies and scandal be shun’d by all company ; except such as have been guilty of the same crime, N.N. several men of no character, old women and young ones of question’d reputation are great authors of lies in this place being of the sect of levellers

It all sounds like valuable advice to me, of at least equal value to the map of the town and its history. With this latter information to hand, one could demonstrate familiarity and learning when engaged in conversation. I can just imagine a family fighting for a glimpse of the map en route to the pump room. ..

…or maybe that wouldn’t be a Georgian thing to do.

The British Library’s Georgians Revealed exhibition is now open

Those with an interest in the history of industrial Britain and the urban landscape will be pleased to hear: Goad fire insurance plans are now online and available for georeferencing. These maps are a mine of information about the towns and cities of late 19th-century and early 20th-century Britian and Ireland, capturing practical elements such as individual addresses and building footprints, as well as the overall character of a place in terms of class, space and the built environment.

These Goad plans were selected for scanning and inclusion in the latest release of BL Georeferencer because of the huge demand for them at the Library. We're asking the public to help "place" them, ie identify their locations by assigning points using modern mapping. It can be a challenge, but it is an opportunity to discover familiar areas as they existed around 100 years ago.

This detail of Sheet 42 of the City of Manchester illustrates the richness of information on the maps. These densely partitioned street is home to warehousing and a variety of industrial activity, cheek-by-jowl with small tenement housing units. Detail about the individual buildings: their materials, the number of floors, windows, and building use, is outstanding. See the map legend, online exhibition and curator's notes, and guide on the Library's holdings for further information about this collection. 

The first edition Goad maps of all British and Irish towns, 1886-1930, are now online. Georeferencing opens today; you can be assigned a Goad map at random, or start by selecting a place.

Alessandro Scafi's wonderfully illustrated, perceptive book  'Maps of Paradise' has just been published by the British Library, and is available in, amongst other places, the British Library shop.  I'm delighted to say that  Alessandro has written a blog post describing his engagement with this extraordinary subject, and its continuing relevance in the world:

 

Where is paradise? I have always been intrigued by paradise on maps. It all began when I was writing my BA thesis, in the late 1980s. I came across, again and again, the same cliché: medieval people were so prone to believing in monsters and marvels that they even located earthly paradise on a map. I felt the cliché needed to be replaced by knowledge. In my doctoral dissertation at the Warburg Institute, which I submitted in 1999, I investigated the notion of earthly paradise in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the fifteenth century. I also began to explore the history of the cartography of paradise, and I ended up writing a history of how the biblical Garden of Eden has been put on maps from the early Middle Ages to the present day.

 

World map from Beatus of Liebana, In Apocalypsin [Monastry of san Domingo de Silos, 1109] . British Library, Add.MS 11695.

During a long conceptual journey, I have encountered earthly paradise in a diversity of guises, fashioned from words on the page and lines on a map. Whether a medieval map maker, a Renaissance biblical scholar, or a Near East archaeologist was involved, what intrigued me most were the diverse ways in which scholars and mapmakers rose to the challenge of identifying the location of paradise on a map, despite being beyond human reach.

The 'Psalter' world map. London, c.1265.  British Library, Add.MS 28681.

The issue has been moulded and remoulded generation after generation and none of the “last words” on the location of paradise was ever effectively final. From the enduring debate over the location of paradise, however, I have learnt more about the people involved than about the issue itself. I have also found that modern historians have been far too quick to brand the products of a history of which they themselves are part as simple-minded and naïve. It is clear that profound human needs lie at the roots of all forms of the nostalgia for paradise. Humans long to be united in safety and peace. Each individual yearns to find a purpose that is higher than that defined by physical existence, and to be spared violence, injustice and social alienation.

The Garden of Eden, from Biblia, das ist, die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch [Wittenberg: Hans Lufft, 1536] British Library, I.B.9

The maps of paradise that I studied celebrate the history of a paradox: the attempt to map the unmappable. At the same time  they also mirror a universal dream of perfection and happiness. All peoples share a nostalgia for a joy that was experienced at the beginning of everything, or else a yearning for a joy to be experienced at everything’s end. All civilizations have imagined a condition, a place, a time for paradise. These Maps of Paradise mirror the universal (and never forgotten) yearning to discover heaven on earth.


Jodocus Hondius, Paradisus, from Atlas Minor [Amsterdam: J. Hondius, 1607/10]. British Library, Maps C.3.a.3.

Athanasius Kircher, Topographia paradisi... from Arca Noe, 1675. British Library 460.c.9

Utopia Insulae Tabula from De optimo reip. statu deque noua insula Vtopia libellus ... Thomae Mori [Basle: J. Frobenium, 1518]. British Library G.2398.(1.) 

Alessandro Scafi