The earliest positive evidence of map making stems
from Babylonia (left), where a cadastral
(real estate) survey for the purpose of taxing property was functioning in the
age of Sargan of Akkad (2300 BC).
Cartography slowly evolved over centuries, but the
first and most important stage of its development took place in Alexandria, the Roman capital of Egypt
during the hundred years before the pre-Christian era. Situated only twelve
miles from the mouth of Nile, the city was the epicenter of information, the
place where goods from India and Arabia were exchanged.
Twenty-five years before the birth of Christ and 300
years since its founding Alexandria was a cosmopolitan city, a melting pot of
humanity from the far corners of the earth. It was a place from travelers and a
haven for scholars.
Strabo
of Amasia
(64/63
BC – AD 24), Greek geographer, well-traveled for his time, came to Alexandria
for a visit and stayed for five years. It is doubtful whether he ever compiled
a map. Yet nearly all that is known about Greek cartography prior to the work
of Claudius Ptolemy (1500 AD) can be traced back to the writings of Strabo of
Amasia and no further.
The earliest maps were based on personal experience
and familiarity with a local situation. They showed the path through the forest
to the neighboring tribe, places where game, water and salt could be found, the
distance and direction, which became increasingly important as civilization
expanded.
Dicaearchus
of Messana
(350-285
BC), Greek geographer, made a start by drawing a straight east-west line across
the map of the habitable world as he knew it, introducing the first
geographical coordinates.
The sun gave to cartography its first three standard
lines of partition: the equator, the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of
Capricorn.
The basic facts concerning the sun’s behavior came
from the common man, the shepherd and the farmer, the fisherman and the camel
driver of primitive civilization. They recognized the sun as the giver and
supporter of life, and were vitally interested in its habits.
Eratosthenes (276-195/194 BC),
Greek geographer, introduced a north-south line, incorporating parallels and
meridians. He is best known for being the first person to calculate the
circumference of the Earth. He was also the first to calculate the tilt of the
Earth’s axis.
Hipparchus’ (190-120 BC),
Greek geographer, greatest contribution to cartography was laying the
foundation of trigonometry.
Claudius
Ptolemy’ (AD 90-168), Greco-Egyptian geographer, Atlas of
the World was an unsurpassed masterpiece for almost 1500 years.
Medieval
cartography from AD 300 to 900 was predominantly
Christian in origin. The geographical statistics complied during the Dark Ages were
spotty and in general unreliable. Nothing new was added except confusion and
theology.
Trips of Marco
Polo (1254-1324), the greatest traveler and explorer of the Middle Ages,
with his brothers proved that there was another world in Asia. He unrolled the
map of Asia to its eastern limits and traced a route across it, “naming and
describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen. He was the first to speak
of the new and brilliant court which had been established at Peking; the first
to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, and to tell of the nations on
its borders; the first to tell more of Tibet than its name, of Sumatra and of other
islands of the archipelago, of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, of Ceylon and
its sacred peak, of India…”
Portugal became the greatest maritime and colonizing
power in Europe during the period of discoveries (1415-1499). Henry of Portugal, surnamed the ‘Navigator’
(1394-1460) also bearing the title of ‘protector of Portuguese studies.’ His
most important contribution to map making was his revival of scientific method:
training his men to apply mathematics and astronomy to their navigation and the
charting of strange waters. His
persistence and inspiring leadership brought fame to the Portuguese marine and
fortune to the crown.
Christopher
Columbus (1450-1451), the dreamer and navigator, pinned his
hopes on Ptolemy and discovered a new world – by accident.
The
new discoveries brought development of charts. One of the
most prolific chart makers of the sixteenth century was Battista Agnese (1500-1564), who flourished between 1536 and 1564.
There were no originality in Agnese’s cartographical work, but there are
important historical compilations, showing many new discoveries.
With Gutenberg’s invention Ptolemy’s Geographica or
the Atlas of the World was multiplied by the printing process.
Gerardus
Mercator (1512-1594) was the first to use the term ‘atlas’
for a collection of maps.
Willem
Blaeu (1571-1638) was a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker
and publisher. His best publication was the great Atlas Major in twelve
volumes, in many respects the most beautiful geographical work ever published (left).
About 1700, a little book was published in England
by John Smith entitled The Art of
Painting in Oyl, to which is added the whole art and mystery of colouring maps.
Between 1650-1700 there were 18 map making centers
in Europe.
Scientific
cartography was born in France during the reign of Louis XIV
(1638-1715), the offspring of astronomy and mathematics. The principles and
methods were unchanged for over two thousand years, but there was something new
– a telescope and a timekeeper. The result was a revolution in map making and a
start towards an accurate picture of the earth.
The first map of France was drawn by Oronce Fine
(1494-1555) and printed in woodcuts in 1525. The first general maps of the
territory using a measuring apparatus were made by the Cassini family during
the 18th century.
Joseph-Nicolas
Delisle (1688-1768) after nearly twenty-two years in Russia
returned to France with hundreds of maps and charts. It was a priceless
collections of the most inaccessible regions about which Europeans knew almost
nothing.
Until the end of the 19th century, world
cartography was in many respects similar to French cartography in the days of
Louis XIV. Surveys and maps of foreign parts were too costly.
Therefore, the first International Geographical Congress was held in Antwerp in 1871,
where many questions were raised and discussed, but none was solved. Nevertheless,
subsequent meetings followed and led to the establishment of the permanent
organization in Brussels in 1922. At those meetings nations had been invited to
exhibit maps and charts, both historical and up-to-date, and several nations
responded.
“As for the world at large, it is impossible to know
a country well, to understand its social, economic and political problems,
without adequate maps of the area. We cannot hope to negotiate a world peace
without a thorough knowledge of every part of the world, without world maps,
complete and on as many scales as are necessary to give us a thorough
understanding of what we are talking about. Maps are synonymous with strategy…which
wins peace if not prosperity. But until such time as man can, without
restriction or fear, sail up to his neighbor’s shore, travel across his
dominion, the map of the world must wait and cartography go impeded.”
Source: The Story of Maps by Lloyd A. Brown
