At the start of the 1600s, there was an economic and artistic boom in Amsterdam and the Hondius publishing house was the primary map publishing house. However, in 1630, William Blaeu and his son, Joan Blaeu, published a small atlas with maps, many using Hondius’s plates, which were acquired after a death in the Hondius family. This started a fierce rivalry and competition between the houses that would last for thirty years – leading both families to continually make larger and more comprehensive atlases. There was a bigger focus on aesthetics, quantity of maps, luxury of production, and the atlas as a status symbol, rather than maps that best reflect the world.

The Atlas Maior, by Joan Blaeu, is known as the most impressive and expensive 17th century manuscript. It was first published in 1662, in Latin. It has 594 maps, 3,368 pages of text, and is split into 11 volumes. Almost all of the maps use data from decades old surveys and maps. Blaeu redrew the maps in his style, with beautiful colors, scripts, and illustrations. Some maps have contemporary data that Blaeu collected himself. While Blaeu succeeded his father as the official map maker for the Dutch East India company, he was not allowed to use the maps and data from his job in his atlas.

The Atlas Maior has regional, country, and province maps, with detailed town names, plants, and buildings. Some maps have latitude and longitude, with detailed ships flying country flags on the oceans. There are regional maps of everywhere in the world, from South East Asia to the Arctic to South America – however most maps are of Europe. There are references to the Greek gods and classical mythologies, with the gods drawn around the first world map.

Blaeu’s atlases were part of a transition period of borders on maps. As attitudes around mapping territory changed, from a collection of peoples to land to have sovereignty over, atlases began drawing clearly defined borders. Many of Blaeu’s maps have borders, but not all - as would soon become the standard.

The Atlas Maior was made to order, printed in the Blaeu printing presses - the biggest in the world. It was featured in atlas collections for the next several hundred years. From 1664 to 1672, there were also versions published with Dutch, French, German, and Spanish texts. There are varying numbers of volumes for the different languages. Carleton’s facsimile has selections in Latin, English, French, and German.

(Kezia Sharnoff)

]]> Blaeu, Joan. Atlas Maior. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 1662-1672.]]> Blaeu, Joan. Atlas Maior of 1655. Edited by P. C. J. van der Krogt. Cologne: Taschen, 2005.

]]> Image reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

]]> National Library of Scotland: Blaeu Atlas Maior, 1662-5 - Further information]]> Akerman, James R. “The Structuring of Political Territory in Early Printed Atlases.” Imago Mundi 47 (1995): 141. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1151310.

“Blaeu Atlas Maior, 1662-5 - Further information.” National Library of Scotland. Accessed October 18, 2024. https://maps.nls.uk/atlas/blaeu-maior/info.html.

History of Cartography. Edited by Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. vol 4, Cartography in the European Enlightenment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020. 768, 834-836. https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/HOC_V4/Volume4.html. ]]> Special Collections (Folio) G1015.B48 1665 .K7 2005.]]> This square map written in Latin and German depicts the region of Saxe-Hildburghausen, what is today the District of Hildburghausen in south-western Germany, as noted by the large cartouche in the upper left corner. The top of the cartouche contains five cherubs around the initials EF topped with a crown. EF likely stands for Ernst Fredrick II, the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen at the time of this map’s production (around 1730). Fredrick’s name is written below the emblem in its Latin form: Ernesto Friderico.

The cartouche also includes the name of the map-maker, Ioannes Bapt. Homann, or Johann Baptist Homann. In 1664 Homann moved to Nuremberg and began a publishing house that specialized in map making. Homann’s publishing firm would become a major producer for central and northern Europe, with the maps circulating widely due to their quality, attractiveness, and relatively low cost.

The bottom left corner of the map contains an “explanation of the symbols” (Erklärung der Zeichen) which records what each symbol represents. This list is contained within an elaborate pedestal topped with the crest of the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, a cherub trumpeter, as well as cannons, flags, and drums; all symbols of warfare.

The bottom right corner contains a plan for the Residenzstadt of Hildburghausen (Plan der Hoch Fürstlichen Residenz-Stadt Hildburghausen). This plan includes a city view, as well as plans for an elaborate garden, not yet complete. Additionally, the town is surrounded by smaller buildings and crops. The plan includes a numbered key to the various buildings both within and outside the Residenzstadt. The desire of Dukes, Princes, and other Imperial leaders of the German regions in this period to have more grandiose administrative-military centers in the form of Residenzstadts drove much of the urban mapping of this period.

Depicted in the remaining space, the map's rendering of Saxe-Hildburghausen includes mountains, trees, rivers, and towns, as well as mills (eine Mühl), zoos (ein Thier Garten), and ferries (ein Fähre). There are spaces of this region that are marked with two different colors. There are two pink spaces that are not connected and lie on the left and right sides of the map, while the four yellow regions lie in the center and each cardinal direction. The colors were likely added using transparent water color wash. Using color to illuminate maps was common within German practice, where it was used to denote religious areas, administrative regions, or countries. While it is unclear what the colors on this map record, the usage of them fits within a larger German tradition. (Riley Gibson 2026)

]]> Edney, Matthew H. “German States.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed. Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Heinz, Markus. “Homman Family.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed. Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Van Duzer, Chet. Frames That Speak. 1st ed. Vol. 2. Boston: BRILL, 2023.

Verdier, Nicolas, Jean-Marc Besse. “Color and Cartography.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed. Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G5700 1400-1800 Map 35)]]>
This map, published around 1730, is likely from Johann Baptist Homann’s Großer Atlas über die ganze Welt, originally published in 1716 as an expansion to his original 1707 Atlas über die ganze Welt. The map itself is similar in style to a number of other city views that the Homann firm published. After Johann Baptist’s death in 1724, his son Johann Christoph took over the company until his own death in 1730. Given the dedication in the title to both Johann Baptist and his son, it is likely that it was included in a later edition of the Großer Atlas published under Johann Christoph. However, after Johann Christoph’s early death, the heirs to the firm (Johann Georg Erbesberger, a copper engraver working for the company, and Johann Michael Franz, a University friend of Johann Christoph’s) continued to work in his style for at least two years. Additionally, the lack of a date in the title is also characteristic of pre-Homann Heirs work. After 1737, the Homann firm would consistently date their maps. This places the date of production around the time of Johann Christoph’s death.

The copper engraving is colored with bright greens, pinks, and blues, which make the map very vibrant. Given its publication in the mid-eighteenth century this map includes many indications of the cultural moment of the Enlightenment. The renderings at the bottom of the city view includes two factory scenes from the salt industry of Halle. The two drawings are supplemented by a view of an auditorium during a lecture. This combination emphasizes the manual and intellectual labor of a larger city like Halle. Johann Christoph even studied medicine in Halle before taking over his father’s company. The map also includes a detailed key to the numbering of the buildings, river, and fields within and surrounding the city. The attention to detail and quality of the engravings leave no doubt as to why the Homann firm was one of the leading European cartographical publishing firms of the eighteenth century. (Riley Gibson 2026)]]>
Edney, Matthew H. “German States.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed. Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Heinz, Markus. “A Programme for Map Publishing: The Homann Firm in the Eighteenth Century.” Imago Mundi (Lympne) 49, no. 1 (1997): 104–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085699708592862.

Heinz, Markus. “Homman Family.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed.
Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Neumann, Joachim. “Geographical Mapping in the German States.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed. Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G5700 1400-1800 Map 37)

]]> This map of Halle is believed to be a later state of another map of Halle held in Carleton’s Special Collections. Published by the Homann firm in Nuremberg, this map depicts the town of Halle from above, as well as a profile view, two internal factory views, and a view of a lecture hall.

While this map is from the same copper plate as the other map of Halle, a large cartouche in the upper right corner indicates that it was added to at a later time. The plates created in the process of copper engraving, while reusable for periods of time, require re-engraving as the ink makes the carved lines too shallow to print correctly. This re-engraving process was common within the Homann firm, especially with maps that were frequently printed, like the maps of Germany. However, the process of re-engraving does indicate that there was an opportunity for the firm to add the cartouche to this map, therefore making a new state of the engraving.

The cartouche indicates the map's dedication to Christian Wolff (1679-1754), a German enlightenment philosopher and resident of Halle. It is not yet known whether Wolff personally commissioned this map or whether it was an honorary dedication within a larger Atlas, however the cartouche’s inclusion does indicate a level of commitment to enlightenment ideals from the Homann firm. Surrounding the dedication are navigational tools and cartographical imagery, including two globes, an astrolabe, books, a compass, and a ruler. Cartouches often served as visual indicators of the cultural values of the creator, in this case a recognition of the value of enlightenment ideals including both science and philosophy. (Riley Gibson 2026)

]]>
Edney, Matthew H. “German States.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed. Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Heinz, Markus. “A Programme for Map Publishing: The Homann Firm in the Eighteenth Century.” Imago Mundi (Lympne) 49, no. 1 (1997): 104–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085699708592862.

Heinz, Markus. “Homman Family.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed. Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Neumann, Joachim. “Geographical Mapping in the German States.” In The History of Cartography vol. 4, part 1, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, ed. Matthew H. Edney and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G5700 1400-1800 Map 36]]>
Uranometria’s more than 1200 stars (expanded from a stellar catalogue of 1005 stars compiled by Tycho Brahe in 1598) are labeled with a Greek or Latin character in order of descending brightness. Each star can therefore be identified by its constellation and letter--Alpha Draco, Epsilon Orion, and so on. This novel system is still in use today, and represents a clean break from the Ptolemaic system in which stars were identified by lines of prose. The constellations are placed on a grid that allows any given star to be located in the night sky to within a fraction of a degree.

Plate 49 shows 12 southern constellations only recently described by Europeans at the time of publication in 1603. Plates 50 and 51 are planispheres for the northern and southern skies respectively, used to show what stars are visible in the sky for any given time and date. Though the first edition included a table of stars on the verso of each plate, in later editions they were published separately as the Explicatio characterum aeneis Uranometrias and are not included in this particular text. (Scott Shafer ‘22)]]> Uranometria: omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aereis laminis expressa, 1639]]> Uranometria: https://bridge.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?context=L&vid=01BRC_INST:CCO&search_scope=BOOKS&tab=BOOKS&docid=alma991005304779702971]]>
Kana, Nick “Alessandro Piccolomini and the First Printed Star Atlas (1540),” Imago Mundi, 58:1, 70-76, DOI: 10.1080/03085690500362355]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) QB6 .B34 1639]]> Zee-Atlas (officially De groote nieuwe vermeerderde zee-atlas), which contained 40 charts at its inception, and its follow-up, the Zee-Fakkel, paved the way for van Keulen and his firm to become the world’s preeminent supplier of maritime charts (History of Cartography 899-900, Lawrence Ruderman). The Zee-Atlas contains only charts, with no accompanying text, while the Zee-Fakkel, a pilot guide, contains both charts and text.

Because the Zee-Atlas is mostly visual, credit for its success should be given in large part to its artist, Jan Luyken, and its chart compiler, Claes Jansz Vooght. Jan Luyken and his son, Caspar, were extremely prolific engravers and book illustrators in Amsterdam from the mid-1600s to the beginning of the 1700s (Het Geheugen), while Vooght was a mathematician, surveyor, and teacher of navigation, and both created charts based on the knowledge of the “seafaring community”, and adapted charts by foreign map makers (History of Cartography 900). The maps themselves contain aspects common to portolan charts and maritime maps of the period, including rhumb lines and depictions of ships, as well as place names along the coasts. However, the opening page of the book contains a sumptuously illustrated depiction of the globe as a whole (see image), with four circles showing the northern, southern, eastern, and western hemispheres. Interestingly, though the rest of the maps in the book are labeled in Dutch, this first one is labeled in Latin. Surrounding these globes are illustrations that draw prominently from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as historical events. Examples include Cerberus, emerging from the fires of Hades; Zeus, posed with his arm drawn back holding a lightning bolt, as if about to throw it; and Poseidon emerging from the ocean, trident in hand. It is clear that the choice of illustration for this map draws artistic inspiration from ancient Greece and Rome, aligning it with the Classical era in music and the Neoclassical movement in architecture which occurred during this same time.]]> “History of Cartography: Volumes One, Two, Three, Four, and Six,” n.d. https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/index.html.

“Het Geheugen,” n.d. https://geheugen.delpher.nl/.

Lawrence Ruderman, Barry. Antique Maps Inc. “Antique Maps by Johannes Van Keulen.” Rare Maps, n.d. https://www.raremaps.com/mapmaker/94/Johannes_Van_Keulen.

Ritchie, G. S. “The History of Hydrography an Enlightened European Era 1660-1800.” The International Hydrographic Review 68, no. 1 (May 19, 2015). https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ihr/article/download/23283/27058.

]]> Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) G1026.K48 2008.]]> The coastlines are elaborately and meticulously drawn, their form matching the expectations of a modern viewer, with the names of coastal towns situated in a sequential order along the part of the land nearest to the coast. The interior of the land is filled with large drawings of castles representing cities, color-coded flags, various animals perhaps thought to be typical of the area, and well-known rivers and mountain systems. The mapmaker made a choice to depict these inland places as larger than their relative size to the land would be; as a result, the inland content grabs a reader’s attention much more quickly than the textual itinerary along the coasts. In addition to this contrast, a network of thin red and black lines, known to scholars as “rhumb lines,” spans the entire map in a systematic and precise fashion. These lines run through coasts and inner land features alike, either in a grid system also visible on the underside of the map, or in radial spokes beginning at various points on the grid. These things seem to indicate that the rhumb lines did have a use in the planning out of space on the map, but it is unclear what larger purpose they would serve to a reader of the map.

The prominence of these visuals combined with the systematic rhumb lines and the impressive display of coastal knowledge seem to indicate that the map and others like it were for a wealthy class who would not be using the the map for actual guidance, but to demonstrate geographical knowledge and power.
]]> Seekarte des Iehuda ben Zara : (Borgiano VII), ed. Arthur Dürst. Zürich: Belser Verlag, 1983.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections Map (Map, Rolled) G5672.M4 A23 1497]]>
“DUCATUS PRUSSIÆ tam POLONO REGIÆ quam DUCALIS BRANDENBURGO Novissima Descriptio in tres Palatinatus et Ducalis in totidem Circulos et Minores Dominia Auctore LUSTUS DANCKERTS AMSTELODAMS cum Privilegio Ordinum Hollandiæ et Westfrisiæ”

The map itself is printed on white paper using an engraved sheet of copper and black ink. The sea in the north is not embellished in any way, except with the words “MARE BALTICUM vulgo DE OOST ZEE” and with a drawing of a cross-bearing orb. It is only differentiated from the land by a thin band of shading around the coasts. The land itself is heavily detailed, with small trees engraved on the northern, central, and southern areas of the map and mountains engraved in the west. There are many lakes, shaded in black, in the central and south of the map, and fewer in the northwest. The landmass is crossed with rivers– major rivers are drawn as bands of white outlined in black, and minor rivers as black lines.

Political boundaries are marked on the map using colored ink, which seems to be applied with a brush. The largest political entities are labeled “BRANDENBURGICA” and “PRUSSIA REGIO” and together span from the northern coast to almost the southernmost edge of the map, and all the way from east to west. The two regions are separated by a meandering magenta line from north to south down the center of the map, but both are outlined in yellow ink, suggesting that they are one entity. There is also a region labeled “POLONIA MAIOR” and “POLONIA PARS” along the southern edge of the map, outlined in green ink, an area labeled “SAMOGITIÆ DUCATUS ARS” in the northeast, outlined in magenta ink, and an area in the west labeled “POMERANIA”. The borders between Pomerania and Prussia Regio, and between Prussia and Ducatus Ars, appear blurred, with yellow and magenta ink that has faded more than the other borders and has been smudged together into a reddish color. There is also a faint magenta border running through Prussia Regio that has faded significantly, and appears to not be an intentional part of the map.

The 17th century was considered the Netherlands’ “Golden Age” of cartography. The Dutch were known throughout Europe as pre-eminent mapmakers, and especially makers of decorative atlases. British mapmakers sometimes attempted to pass their own maps off as Dutch by either emulating the styles of engraving and leaving their names off their own maps, or by reusing Dutch copper plates to print maps in their own shops.

Prior to 1680, Dutch maps were not solely geographic tools. The commercial, political, and cultural information in them was just as important. Dutch mapmakers would include decorative cartouches, borders, and images of cities and regents of the area that sought to establish the area being mapped as a powerful and legitimate political entity. The maps themselves were also often aesthetically pleasing, and served as decoration as well as intellectual works.

This particular map was published by Justus Danckerts (b. 1635, d. 1701), a Dutch engraver and map publisher active between 1660 and 1700. Danckerts inherited a map publishing house in Antwerp from his father, and turned it into one of the leading houses in the city. Danckerts published a series of major maps and folio atlases in the 1680s and 1690s with the assistance of two of his sons, Theodorus and Cornelis II, who were trained in etching and engraving. It is likely that this particular map was engraved by Cornelis II. While it is difficult to date this family’s geographic works because they rarely attached a year to their maps, this map of Prussia likely originated from one of the atlases the family created during these two decades.

This date range corresponds to either the later years of Frederick William, the Great Elector, who ruled Brandenburg from 1640 to 1688, or the reign of his immediate successor. Frederick William’s reign began after the devastation of the 30 Years’ War, when two-thirds of Brandenburg was occupied and plundered by Sweden. Much of his energy was dedicated towards establishing Brandenburg as a state which could project a large amount of power despite its small size, largely through military reforms. This building of power culminated in Frederick William’s securing of full sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia in 1657 at the expense of Poland through a series of military conflicts and shrewd diplomatic maneuvers. This map could be read as a proclamation of strong Brandenburg rule over Prussia at a time when such control was new and still tenuous.

(Scott Hudson '24 and Casey Wiener '25)]]> Barber, Peter Michael. "Enlightened Mapping? Maps in the Europe of the Enlightenment." The Cartographic Journal 57, no. 4 (2020): 379-399.

Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006.

Danku, Gyuri, and Zoltán Sümeghy. “The Danckerts Atlas: The Production and Chronology of Its Maps.” Imago Mundi 59, no. 1 (2007): 43–77. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40234067.

Feuchtwanger, E.J. Prussia: Myth and Reality: The Role of Prussia in German History. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1970.

Friedrich, Karin. Brandenburg-Prussia, 1466-1806. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Shennan, Margaret. The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia. London and New York: Routledge, 1995.]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G5700 1400-1800 Map 21)]]> Northeast Poland]]> Liber Floridus. Ghent University Library, ms. 90, f. 241r.]]> Lamberti S. Audomari Canonici Liber Floridus : Codex authographus bibliothecae universitatis Gandavensis. Ed Alberto Derolez. Ghent: Story-Scientia]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Folio) AE2 .L36 1968]]> Liber Floridus. It is so large, in fact, that the top fifth or so of the circle goes off the page, and an additional piece of parchment needed to be added in order for the circle to be complete. This piece of parchment folds into the book when closed. Filling in the blank space around the outside of the map is text, and along the inside edge of the circle there are labelled rings. The outermost ring has the zodiac signs, then Saturn, Mars, sun and Venus. The innermost ring is the moon, and in between Venus and the moon there is a ring the label of which is no longer legible.

Within the rings there is a recognizable zonal map of the world, with the known world of Europe, Africa, and Asia on the left page and a southern temperate zone on the right. The northern habitable zone is strongly reminiscent of T-O maps in the division of land.

In between the two temperate regions is the inhospitable hot zone, but in this particular zonal map the hot zone is occupied by a red pathway. This equatorial track has a chart of the sun's movements over the course of a year on top of it. The combination of this pathway chart and the circles of the planets circling the earth on one map is interesting in that it would have provided viewers with two different ways to visually situate themselves in the heavens.

The map is mostly uncolored parchment, but the second most common color is a green that comprises both two planetary rings as well as what appears to be water surrounding the equatorial pathway and that encircles the world map, as well as coloring in rivers. Red is used for a single planet ring, the pathway chart, and two mountains in the northern temperate zone. There is a single blue planet ring, that of Mars. (Audrey Kastner '20)]]> Liber Floridus, 1121. archive.ugent.be:018970A2-B1E8-11DF-A2E0-A70579F64438]]> Lamberti S. Audomari Canonici Liber Floridus: Codex authographus bibliothecae universitatis Gandavensis, ed. Albert Derolez. Gandavi: In aedibus Story-Scientia, 1968.]]> The Making and Meaning of the Liber Floridus. Turnhout: Brepols and Harvey Miller Publishers, 2015.]]>

Carleton Gould Library Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) AE2 .L36 1968.

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