Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/548

Rh 520 tuition of Ptolemy (Carta Marina Portugalensium), in 1524 in Spain (in the Junta of Badajoz), in 1582 in England (Michael Lock). 7. The Revival of Ptolemy. This produced in the 15th century a revolution in the construction of maps, and laid the foundations of modem cartography. Ptolemy s great work again became generally well known in western Europe only after it was translated into Latin by Jacobus Angelus de Scarparia in 1409 ; and this version was first printed in 1475 at Vicenza without maps. The first edition with maps (to wit, a map of the world, ten maps of Europe, four of Africa, and twelve of Asia) appeared at Rome in 1478. Afterwards there were editions at Bologna (1482), Dim (1482, by Nicolaus Donis with five modern maps), Ulm (I486), Rome (1490, 1507, and 1508, the last with seven mo.lern maps, among which the famous map of the world by Joh. Ruysch), Strasburg (1513, with forty-seven maps); and in the course of the same century twenty-five other editions might be mentioned at Strasburg, Basel, Lyons, Cologne, Venice, and Paris. From this long series, which if prolonged to the beginning of the Thirty Years War would be further increased by five, it is evident that Ptolemy was the great master of the modern time. At first maps were drawn according to Ptolemy s determinations of geographical position ; but, in proportion as the study of mathematics, astronomy, and cosmography excited the interest of men of culture, opportunities were afforded of correcting Ptolemy s astronomical positions, especially in the case of central and northern Europe, where the range of the great cosmographer s knowledge had hardly enabled him to collect original material. The new arts of wood and copper engraving supplied the means for a rapid diffusion of printed maps. The oldest map printed from a wooden block (in the National Library at Paris), dating from 1460, and thus belonging to the earliest period of wood engrav ing, was produced in Germany, and represents Germany and western Europe. It is considered to be a copy from an old Roman map. After the foundations of trigonometry had been laid by Purbach, Regiomontanus, and others, attempts of a rather rude kind were made in the beginning of the 16th century to execute geographical triangulations and delineations. The towns formed the central points of the system, their direction and position from the post of observation being fixed as precisely as possible, and their distance estimated in miles according t j the best available data without being accurately measured. It was considered sufficient to assign in this way the relative positions of inhabited places, and the representation of the physical relations was very super ficial ; the course of rivers, for instance, was not measured, but carried past ths towns on their banks in conventional lines. In the Ptolemy of 1513 we already find three topographical maps, viz., one of Switzerland, one of the district of the upper Rhine from Basel to Mainz and Lorraine, and a large one of Crete, which it has been conjectured was taken from a Venetian original. The number of maps of smaller districts rapidly increased. In 1528 Aventinusdrew the duchy of Bavaria, in 1533 Sebastian of Rotenhimm produced a map of East Franconia. Ma]) drawing became a favourite occupation with the Germans. The best geographical survey of this period was the Chorographia Bavarian, by the famous Philip Apianns (twenty-four sheets, at Ingolstadt, 1568). The number of cartographers increased so rapidly that Abraham Ortelius, in the first edition of his collection of maps ( Thcntrum Munrli, 1570), was able to give the names of ninety- three. The first attempts to improve and to increase the methods of projection known to tlie Greeks were made by Germans, namely, Johann Stonier (1452-1536), Johann Werner of Nuremberg (1468-1 528), Peter Apianns (1495-1552). The last-mentioned introduced the favourite method of representing both hemispheres together in an elliptical form with lines of latitude. Maps of the world were compiled by Peter Apian us, Oronee Fine (1494-1555), Sebastian Cabot (1544), Giacomo Gastaldo (1546-48), Giov. Batt. Guicciardini (1549), Giov. Domin. Methoni at Venice, Ileinrich Pontanus of Arnhem (1556, a map of the world in the ohape of an imperial e;igle), Guill. Postel at Paris (1581), &c. 8. Mercator and Jus Successors. Gerhard Kramer, usually called Mercator (born of German parents at Rupelmonde in Flanders in 1512), has the honourable place of a re former of cartography. We possess his map of Palestine (1537), a map of Flanders (Louvain, 1540) in nine sheets, phototyped in 1882, a globe (1541), and the first critical map of Europe (1554), by which lie laid the foundation of his fame as the first cartographer of his age. The exclusive use of Latin letters for maps in Germany was due to his example. Especially famous is his map of the world (fig. 4) dating from 1569: &quot;Nova et aucta orbis terrce descriptio ad usum navi- gantium emendate accomrnodata&quot; (one copy in the National Library at Paris). This map is drawn in the projection of increasing latitudes with lines of latitude and parallel meridians, the basis of which was furnished by Edward Wright in 1599 in Certain Errors in Naviga tion. It is the first chart on which true rhumb lines could be drawn as straight lines. By 1601 Mercator s projection was in use for all sea charts. In 1578 Mercator drew up maps for Ptolemy exactly in accordance with his determinations; and these were followed by maps of Germany, the Low Countries, and France (1585), and if Italy (1590). It was his purpose to produce a complete collection of new maps, to which he gave the name Atlas ; but he died in 1594, and the publication of this first atlas (1595) was left to his son. The title took the place of the designations previously in fashion Theatrum Orbis, Speculum Munili, &c. The second edition of the Atlas appeared in 1602. The later editions were issued by Jodocus Honclius in Amsterdam. Before Mercator collections of maps, including various countries, and independent of Ptolemy, had begun to be published. Thus Christoftel Frosehoverin Zurich issued various &quot;Landtailen in 1562 a map of the world (Universalis Cosmographia, in the shape of a heart, dated MD.XL.VI. ), Europe, Germania, Gallia, &quot;die gantze Eydgnoschafft,&quot; and eight topographical maps of Swiss districts. Of much greater importance and influence was the collection pub lished by Abraham Ortelius of Antwerp (1527-98), Thcatruin Orbis Terrarum (1570), in which the best maps from all countries were re- engraved. The first edition with a Latin text contained fifty-three sheets; the seventh (1573) had sixty-nine maps, the twelfth (1579) ninety-two. Editions appeared with the text in German, French. Dutch, and after 1600 in English and Italian, and obtained the widest diffusion. Through this work the centre of cartographic activity was transferred to Holland. There too laboured the suc cessors of Mercator, Jodocus Hondius (1563-1611) and his son Henricus Hondius (1580-1644). Their maps, in several folio volumes, were numbered by hundreds. To the school of Mercator belonged also Petrus Plancius and Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer of Enkhuyzen (Aurigarius), who by his Spicghcl dcr Zccracnlt (Leyden, 1583) became the founder of nautical map-collections. In 1588 a re production of this atlas appeared in London as the first &quot; Waggoner. &quot; In the beginning of the 17th century the town of Dieppe also pro duced excellent charts, Guill. Levasseur (1601), Jean Dupont(1625), and Jean Guerard (1631) being at work there. About the same time another famous cartographic family arose in Holland. William Jansz. Blaeu (1571-1638) and his sous Jan and Cornelis turned out about four hundred maps previous to 1655. AVilliain Blaeu was in 1633 appointed by public decree cartographer to the States-General ; and it was his duty to examine the ships logs and so amend the maps. He had a rival in the person of Jan Janszoon (Jansonius), who, working with the material inherited by him from his father- in-law Jodocus Hondius, produced a Dutch atlas in six volumes, a French in six folios, a German in nine folios, and a Latin in two. Cartography became a lucrative business, but the scientific value of the work grew less and less in the hands of Nicolaus Vischer (Piscator) from 1621 to 1670 and his son of the same name (ob. 1709), of Friedrich de Witt and his sons, and of Peter Schenck. The in fluence of the Dutch school, which had previously been so great, disappeared with the close of the 17th century. In the 16th century the Italians were still active competitors with the Germans and Dutch. In engraved maps Venice held a specially high rank up to 1570, the Piedmontese Giacomo Gastaldo and Paolo Forlani of Verona being settled there. Their publications com prised well-nigh all parts of the earth. The progress of discovery can be followed on their general (univcrsafc) and topographical maps. Gastaldo s period of activity lay between 1546 and 1569, Forlani s between 1560 and 1570. They had a successor in Antonio