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]]> 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]]> ]]> Mapas d México en el Archivo d Indias Sevilla. Madrid: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte : Testimonio Compañía Editorial, 2002.]]> Map of New Galicia at New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs Media Center]]> Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) ; G4411.A1 1550 M3 2002]]> 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)]]>
- Mapa de Nueva Galicia: Estado de Jalisco (1550)
- Mapa del Pueblo de Tetela de Ocampo (1581)
- Plano de Antequera: Oaxaca de Juárez (1771)
- Plano de Guanajuato (XVIII century)

This one in particular is a city view of the settlement Tetela de Ocampo in Puebla.

Visually, the map is drawn in portrait -- taller than it is wide. It places emphasis on the geography surrounding the cityscape: blue-gray chains of what appear to be mountains or hills or bluffs go throughout the landscape, together encircling five basin- or valley-like areas of exaggerated buildings painted in yellow. The largest basin is centralized, in the upper half, with smaller ones to its upper and lower left, as well as the upper and lower right. There is no compass rose to orient cardinal directionality.
Churches in particular are emblematically depicted large and outstanding from their surroundings, the largest of which being near the center, drawn as if made of brick, and captioned underneath as: "San(c)ta [sic] Maria Assump(ción)". The caption "Tetela" appears above the church, with a miniature priest standing behind it holding a book -- presumably a bible -- in hand. There is a second person in this central area towards the left of the church -- wearing a cloak and with staff in hand. These are the only two persons not drawn as travelling on the roads that weave through the map. Those roads are shaded reddish-brown, and feature caravans of men with horses and individual men. They are captioned, with the road to the right of the map being the "Camino real de México".
All persons depicted on the map appear to be Spanish, and are clothed in Spanish dress.
There appear to be rivers depicted as wavy lines sourcing from hills/mountains and heading outwards. They are not coloured. The trees are generally depicted the same with the exclusion of the bottom left, which is populated by palms, and the top right, which has no trees, possibly depicting a desert or marsh with rolling designs in the land.
The art style of map is indicative of either non-Indigenous origin, or the production by an adherent to a European school of art -- possibly from a religious order such as the Jesuits. Therefore, it is likely intended to serve as an interpretable depiction of the area to Europeans unfamiliar with indigenous Mesoamerican cartography, from which this map differs heavily. (see Buisseret, David. 2007. „41 - Spanish Colonial Cartography, 1450 –1700“. In The History of Cartography. Vol. 3, Pt. 1)
As referenced, there is a footnote written upon a small uncoloured area of the map at the base.

While the commissioner, and various then-contemporary correspondents who commented upon this map are known, it's creator, to my knowledge, has not as of yet, been identified. The owner/custodian of the original map from which the facsimile is made has also not been described.

The writer of commentary for the fascimile collection is quoted as the following, translated by self into English:

« It has the signature M. P. Mexico, 31 and comes from file 1529 of the "Indiferente General". Pen drawing and colored with watercolor in ochre and gray tones, measuring 443 x 703 mm. It was commissioned by the corregidor Don Cristóbal Godínez y Maldonado on July 9, 1581, and was sent to Spain along with an informational report that is also preserved in the General Archive of the Indies. P. Lanzas Torres described it in his "Catalog of Maps and Plans of Mexico. General Archive of the Indies" (Madrid, 2nd ed. 1985, p. 34).

Of the towns called Tetela that have endured since the Spanish era, we must identify the one represented in our map as the one called Tetela de Ocampo (State of Puebla) due to the series of towns that appear around it: San Pedro de Hueytentlán, San Juan Tututla, etc. Each town is represented with a larger building, which, due to the cross crowning it, refers to the church, surrounded by smaller houses. Rivers and roads are well depicted, and along them appear travelers and pack mules loaded with their bundles.

The footnote says: "This head town of Tetela has four hundred and fifty neighbors, not counting more than a hundred old men who live outside. And it was signed by the corregidor Juan Gonçáles (signature). By order of the corregidor, Marcos del Cuenca, scribe." »


(Anton-August "Ashton" Macklin '27)]]> 9 July, 1581]]>
General Archive of the Indies (Archivo General de Indias), Seville

Ministerio de Educación, Cultura, y Deporte Española, Madrid (Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport)

Emilio Olmos García-Calamarte (como representante legal de: / as a legal representative of:) Testimonio Compañia Editorial, S.A.

TEyPE, S.A., Sauce, 30. Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid

José Manuel Ruiz Asencio, Catedrático de Paleografía de la Universidad de Valladolid (Professor of Paleography at the University of Valladolid)]]>
https://bibliotecadigital.rah.es/es/consulta/registro.do?id=62218]]> “Mapa del Pueblo de Tetela de Ocampo, año 1581.” In Mapas de México en el Archivo de Indias Sevilla. Madrid: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2002.

Facsimile Finder. “Mapas de México, Archivo de Indias Facsimile.” Accessed October 16, 2024. https://www.facsimilefinder.com/facsimiles/mapas-de-mexico-archivo-indias-facsimile.

Buisseret, David. 2007. „41 - Spanish Colonial Cartography, 1450 –1700“. In The History of Cartography. Vol. 3, Pt. 1 University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/HOC_V3_Pt1/HOC_VOLUME3_Part1_chapter41.pdf.

]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) (G4411.A1 1550 M3 2002) https://bridge.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01BRC_INST/1tn7c8c/alma991016542481902971
]]> Included in the Codex Altonensis, this diagram functions as a map of Dante’s passage through hell. Flanked by images of Dante and Virgil entering and subsequently exiting hell, the main body of the map consists of a descending spiral of text describing the steps of Dante’s journey. At the center, the map transitions to visual representation, depicting a three-faced Satan devouring Cassius, Brutus, and Judas at the center of Hell. The concentric rings and circular format of the map ressemble a cosmographical map, closely linking the manuscript to a contemporaneously recognizable scientific discourse.

Dante’s Divinia Commedia, though a literary work, depended heavily on the realistic conceptualization of space, especially in the Inferno section. This primed the work for illustrative mapping, which was a common practice when crafting manuscripts of the text in the 14th century. (Patrick Wigent '19)]]> Divina Commedia: Codex Altonensis. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1965.]]> The History of Cartography, vol. 3, part 1 Cartography in the European Renaissance, ed. David Woodward, 450–460. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.]]> Carleton Gould Library Special Collections (Folio) PQ4301 .A1 1965]]> Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the highly schematized mappamundi in the Codex Urgellensis is its representation of mountains, rivers, and seas as the most important boundaries and geographical landmarks. The Mediterranean Sea dominates the center of the map and separates Europe on the left and Africa on the right. The Garden of Eden, signified by a rectangle containing the naked Adam and Eve accompanied by a serpent, is prominently featured and located conspicuously close to the holy city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the only colored landmark on an otherwise monochrome map, representing its Biblical significance. On the right side of the map is a fourth continent, sandwiched between two oceans. This unique representation of the known world covers two parchment pages, and provides the geographical context for the text in the manuscript, Beatus of Liébiana’s Commentary on the Apocalypse of Saint John.

Pat Chirathivat '16 and Nora Katz '16

]]> Beatus de Liébiana Codex Urgellensis, ed. Peter Klein. Madrid: Testimonio Compañia Editorial, 1997.]]> Carleton Library, Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) BS2825.A2 B.37 1997]]> ]]>
Very little is known about the author Lambert, except that he was a Benedictine monk in the early 12th century in what is now Norhter France, he was selected to be the Canon of St. Omer, and that he created the Liber Floridus.

The mappamundi is a 30cm x 43cm circle map, oriented with East on top and taking up almost a full spread of the Liber Floridus manuscript. It features four colors: turquoise/ocean green (water), white (land), light red (mountains and borders), and black (outlines and place labels). An encircling ocean surrounds the entire map in turquoise, which in turn is surrounded by a red line, suggesting an unpassable barrier. The map is divided into two sections by the equator (along the manuscript gutter), with a red line from top left to bottom right marking the sun’s ecliptic.

When looking at an open manuscript or book, the verso is the left page (or back of the previous page) and the recto is the right page (or front of the next page).

This mappamundi is considered a zone map, although the verso taken alone resembles a T-O map: the bottom half is bisected by the vertical Mediterranean which leads upwards to a horizontal body of water which is a combination of the Black, Aegean, and Red seas. Asia is the upper half of the verso, while Africa is the bottom right quadrant, and Europe is the bottom left.

The verso is full of small rivers and mountains, but some bodies of water like the Nile and the Tyrrhenian Sea are emphasized. The southern half of the map (on the recto) is dedicated to land below the equator, of which little is known. The encircling ocean is full of islands, but unusually the only island in the Mediterranean is one big circle: this island is presumably Sicily.

The labels of this map are particularly interesting. While some labels name places (e.g. Aquitania, Italia, Roma) many describe the people or things that inhabit those lands, like a label that reads ‘place of dragons and serpents and cruel beasts’ in southeastern Africa. Lambert also included the areas of Gog and Magog, Paradise, and the Antipodes, according to previous medieval tradition (the former two are in northeast Asia and east Asia respectively, while the latter is in the far west oceans).

There is text on both the verso and recto around the map, and there is also a large piece of writing within the unknown land of the southern hemisphere. There are very few symbols used in this map: there are no figures of humans, animals, or any living creature or plant. In fact, the map is reasonably minimalistic compared to other illustrative medieval maps; this mappamundi’s only decoration comes in its color and in the wavy lines of the ocean that offer subtle patterning.

(Peter Kenedi 2027)]]> Digital online manuscript of Wolfenbüttel Liber Floridus]]> Vorholt, Hanna. Shaping Knowledge : The Transmission of the “Liber Floridus.” London: The Warburg Institute, 2017.

Woodward, David. “Medieval Mappaemundi.” Chapter 18. In History of Cartography 1, edited by David Woodward and J. B. Harley, 1:286–370. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Wikimedia.org. “Category:Liber Floridus - Wikimedia Commons,” 2022. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Liber_Floridus#/media/File:Mapa-mundi_do_Liber_Floridus_de_Lambert_of_Saint-Omer_(c._1120).jpg.

Ghent University website about the Ghent version of the Liber Floridus (and info on Lambert of St. Omer)

Liberfloridus.be. “Universiteit Gent | Liber Floridus.” Universiteit Gent; Ghent University, 2011. https://www.liberfloridus.be/index_eng.html.

Useful sources in German and French respectively:

Lambert. Der “Liber floridus” in Wolfenbüttel : eine Prachthandschrift über Himmel und Erde. Edited by Patrizia Carmassi and Christian Heitzmann. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2014.

Lecoq, Danielle. “La Mappemonde Du ‘Liber Floridus’ Ou La Vision Du Monde de Lambert de Saint-Omer.” Imago Mundi 39 (1987): 9–2. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1150970.

]]> Special Collections (Folio) ; AE2 .L363 2014


]]> ]]>
Contemporary political boundaries between the three regions are outlined in blue, pink, yellow or green to delineate each from the other. The regions represented do not show hard political lines, but rather a relative description of the locations of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania. Each region is labeled in labels and by heraldry which gives a conceptual representation of each entity's claim beyond the unstable geographic borders.

The top of the map depicts a small portion of the Baltic Sea. It has no label, but it does have icons that signal to the viewer that the space is sea. There are two compass roses, each with rhumb lines coming out from each compass direction, which is reminiscent of medieval portolan charts used by sailors in the Mediterranean. There are also three ships in the sea, which indicates that the Baltic is a sea that people regularly sail on, to the mapmaker’s knowledge. As opposed to modern maps that usually denote water with empty space, it is common for maps at this time period to visually indicate the presence of seas.

The two bottom corners of the map contain intricate images to orient the viewer to the map. In the bottom left corner, the cartouche identifies the map as focusing on Brandenburg with text and the crest. Next to the text is a woman holding a key, which is likely symbolic. In the right bottom corner of the map there is a scale in common German miles surrounded by cherubs. Along the right border of the map is another scale that marks latitude, each degree subdivided into 60 minutes.

There are lots of small icons on the map to label different features. Cities are represented by little castle or town icons that the colorist has painted red. There are many trees on this map, and they appear to be clustered into forests. There are a few mountains, and on the far left of the map there is a swamp, colored light green and labeled Paludes, Latin for swamp.

The rivers on this map provide a central network and means of understanding the space. Many of the major rivers are labeled and many of the cities are located along these rivers. Much as a modern map may use roads or highways to provide a central frame of understanding, the rivers provide a centralized network which spans regions and connects cities.

The map is part of a larger atlas made by Willem Janszoon Blaeu. Blaeu and his son were major players in the booming cartography industry in what is now the Netherlands in the 1600s. Blaeu's Atlas Novus was part of a larger "atlas race" among mapmakers in Amsterdam at the time as they tried to outdo each other in their cartographic ability. The map shown above is a copper print from Blaeu's Atlas Novus which first appeared in the 1634 edition of the atlas and continued to appear in Blaeu's atlases and those of his son into the late 1650s. Blaeu is known to have bought copper plates from the Mercator-Hondius atlas in the 1630s, and it is possible that this is one of them. A similar map, which appears in the David Rumsey collection, is credited to Mercator.

(Ruby Becker '25) (Erin Watson ‘24)
]]> Mercator Map At David Rumsey Collection]]> Biggs, Michael. “Putting the State on the Map: Cartography, Territory, and European State Formation.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 41, no. 2 (1999): 374–405.

Damen, Mario, and Kim Overlaet. “Constructing and Representing Territory in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe: A Conclusion.” In Constructing and Representing Territory in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Mario Damen and Kim Overlaet, Amsterdam University Press, (2022): 349-58.

Keuning, Johannes. “Blaeu’s ‘Atlas.’” Imago Mundi 14 (1959): 74–89.

Harley, J. B., David Woodward, Mark S. Monmonier, and Mary Sponberg Pedley. The History of Cartography. Edited by J. B. (John Brian) Harley, David Woodward, Mark S. Monmonier, and Mary Sponberg Pedley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (1987).]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G5700 1400-1800 Map 12)]]>
When you look at this book, each flip of the page shows an entirely different image. As the campaign enters a desert area, the landscape turns tan; as the weather changes from springtime, when the campaign started, to other seasons, the viewer can tell by the color scheme. Interspersed between full-page landscape images are passages in Ottoman Turkish regarding the details of the map. Sometimes the text is written on full pages, with no images; at other times, it is included in the images, describing the qualities of the illustrations.

The image of Istanbul, depicted in this manuscript is centered on the Golden Horn and is rich with detail. However, with further analysis, one will note that no people are shown, a stylistic choice standard for Ottoman cartography in this time period. There are also no roads between buildings. The Hagia Sophia, Topkapı Palace, Galata Tower, and even the Maiden Tower are all shown. The map is positioned lengthwise on two sheets of the facsimile. The Galata Tower marks the edge of the city, beyond which is the countryside. Because the map positions the Galata Tower at the top of the page, it does not point due north, further indicating that these maps are for commemoration rather than geographical or navigational knowledge. The city is surrounded by the Walls of Istanbul, which would have stood at the time of the campaign.

As the campaign moves out of Istanbul and into the small cities and countryside, the map starts to depict Ottoman camps. The camps do not impose on the landscape, but instead appear as small clusters outside of the cities. The same arrangement of tents—one large red one surrounded by four or five smaller brown ones—comes up frequently, but still people are not shown. This depiction of the Ottoman military campaign by Nasuh serves as a different approach to regional and itinerary mapping. It is a commemoration rather than a domination, and highlights the beauty of architecture and nature in one work. (Melissa Uc 2024)


Author’s Note: While referred to as “Mezailname,” (the primary title), other scholarship, referring to a work with the same shelf number and the same images and page numbers call the work “Mecamū‘a-i menāzil.”
]]> ]]> ]]> ]]>
]]> Presentation at Facsimile Finder]]> View of Istanbul at Wikimedia Commons]]> Facsimile Finder. "Menazilname." Facsimile Finder. https://www.facsimilefinder.com/facsimiles/menazilname-facsimile.

Necipoğlu, Gülru. "The Aesthetics of Empire: Arts, Politics and Commerce in the Construction of Sultan Süleyman's Magnificence." In The Battle for Central Europe : the Siege of Szigetvár and the Death of Süleyman the Magnificent and Nicholas Zrínyi (1566), by Pál. Fodor, 115-59. Leiden: Brill NV, 2019.

Nasuh, Matrakçı. Swordsman, Historian, Mathematician, Artist, Calligrapher Matrakçı Nasuh and His Menazilname : Account of the Stages of Sultan Süleyman Khan’s Iraqi Campaign. İstanbul: MASA, 2015.  

Rogers, J. M. "Itineraries and Town Views in Ottoman Histories." In The History of Cartography, by J. B. Harley, David Woodward, Matthew H. Edney, Mary Sponberg Pedley, and Mark S. Monmonier, 228-55. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

]]> Special Collections (Books, Quarto) ; DR507.N373 A83 2015

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