"Hildesia / Hildesheim" from Topographie Niedersachsen
Matthäeus Merian the Elder was born in Basel (modern Switzerland) in 1593. He began his career as a stained glass designer, but switched to engraving, working under Dietrich Meyer (1572-1658). In his early career, Merian the Elder found work in Strasburg, Paris, Stuttgart, and finally Oppenheim, where he was employed at the publishing firm of Johann Theodor de Bry. He went on to marry de Bry’s daughter, and the two returned to Basel where their first son, Matthäeus the Younger was born in 1621. In 1623, de Bry died, leaving his workshop in sole possession of his son-in-law. Matthäeus the Elder operated for the remainder of his life out of Oppenheim and the nearby city of Frankfurt until his death in 1650. Matthäeus Merian the Younger also went on to work as an engraver as well as a portrait painter. He spent much of his youth traveling, spending considerable time in Italy and Nuremberg. Upon his father’s death, he took over management of the workshop. Matthäeus the Younger likely contributed illustrations to the Topographia Germaniae, and was responsible for publishing the remaining volumes after 1650. This engraving of the city Hildesheim is originally from the Topographie Niedersachsen, written by Martin Zeiler and illustrated in the workshop of Matthäeus Merian. It is one of two representations of this German city in the atlas series; the other is a plan view. This black-and-white engraving depicts the city from an elevated position in the northeast, as if the viewer is looking from a hill outside the city or looking from a bird’s eye view. The upper two fifths of this city view is the sky. In the middle of the sky is the emblem of the city, which features an eagle. The emblem is surrounded by a wreath decorated with flowing ribbons on the top. The name of the city, in both Latin and German forms, appears on the two sides of the emblem. Blank white space represents the sky, while horizontal lines form organic shapes to represent clouds. Below the sky, we see the distant hills and farmlands outside the city. Trees cover most of the hills. Small, thin, wiggly and repetitive lines depict the distant forests. In contrast to the dense forest, the rather blank area with parallel lines are the farmlands. Some marks suggestive of towns do exist, but they are not as elaborate or detailed as those near or inside the city. The city appears in the middle ground, protected by a fortified wall and a moat. Due to the elevated perspective, the buildings’ roofs are the main subjects, while tree canopies appear occasionally. No animals or human figures appear inside the city. The engraver successfully conveys a large variety of buildings with small liner strokes, including buildings with complex pointed towers. By changing how packed the lines are, the engraver creates shadows and shading to suggest the light comes from the east. Capitalized letters appear next to some of the buildings. A viewer can find the names for those buildings using the scroll with explanatory legends at the bottom of the engraving. The engraver depicts a peaceful Hildesheim, not interrupted by the Thirty-Years War. David Paisey says: “the Topographiae Germaniae, comprising hundreds of engravings, of which Merian was justly proud, record[ed] as he intended a Germany untouched by the dreadful War that lasted most of his adult life." (Paisey 85) A closeup depiction of the countryside and a hill are in the foreground. In this area, human figures and animals are occupied with daily activities. For example, in the lower left, two figures and a three- horse wagon are heading toward the city gate. There are also farmers sowing the farmlands and travelers resting on the hill. (Yuewei Wang ‘24 and Evan Orjala ‘24)
Matthäeus Merian the Elder, Matthäeus Merian the Younger
Merian the Elder, Matthäeus, and Martin Zeiler. Topographie Niedersachsen. Frankfurt, 1641-54. Gould Library Special Collections & Archives, Carleton College, Northfield, MN.
Special Collections, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
Rights for maps held by individual publishers and institutions. Thumbnails displayed constitute fair use.
View of Hildesia/Hildsheim. Merian's Germany at the Deutsches Historisches Museum
Sheet map removed from an atlas or book.
Carleton Library Oversize Books (D915 .Z4 1644a)
This map is titled in English: The Margrave and Elector of Brandenburg: which makes up part of the region of Upper Saxony, divided into its main parts. It was made by Guillaume Sanson and published in Alexis-Hubert Jaillot’s Atlas nouveau in 1692, though there versions of this map ranging from 1676-1700. Guillaume Sanson (1633-1703) was the son of Nicholas Sanson, father of the Sanson mapping powerhouse. Nicholas created the first world atlas made in France and developed innovative cartographic techniques, including a map projection. Nicolas changed the cartographic perspective to be more technical and less lavish. Paris at the time was overpowering other cultural hubs such as Antwerp, so artists and cartographers from the Netherlands and the north were venturing to Paris for work. Nicola’s influence on the French map trade greatly affected the cartographic perspective, and the precision and scientific detail that he used became a model throughout the 17th century. He left his business to his sons, Nicholas II, Guillaume, and Adrien. They carried on his successful and prominent cartography business, though with some prominent rivalries and financial troubles. Guillaume was accused of republishing maps without updating them appropriately, and a new survey of France found that his map significantly overestimated France’s borders. In partnership with Jaillot, Guillaume published the Atlas nouveau in 1681 and the Introducion à la geographie from his father. Alexis-Hubert Jaillot (1632-1712) published abundantly and also passed on his business to his descendants, including female relatives. He was the first to produce the then-popular style of 2 sheet double-hemisphere world map. Jaillot had long term contracts with engraver François Caumartin and letter-engraver Louis Cordier, so they are possible engravers for this map. This map depicts Brandenburg at the time, which was the largest autonomous estate in the Holy Roman Emperor and ruled by the Calvinist Elector Friedrich III. This map was made in the period after the 30 Years War, which destroyed about 25-40 percent of Central Europe’s population, and shortly before the creation of the Kingdom of Prussia. This region today includes many states of Northeast Germany and Western Poland, which are listed in the tags. Sophie Quinn '25 and Dane Swanser '23
Sanson, Guillaume, and Alexis Hubert Jaillot. “Le Marquisat et Eslectorat de Brandebourg : qui fait partie du cercle de la Haute Saxe, divisé en ses principales parties.” A Paris: Chez H. Jaillot, joignant les grands Augustins, aux deux Globes, 1692
Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G5700 1400-1800 Map 23)
This map displays the Brandenburg March, a borderland in northeastern Germany in 1598. The map is engraved and shows the town names, rivers and lakes, and forests of the area. The map is oriented with North at the top although there is not a compass. There are three labeled sections of the map: Marchia Antiqua to the left, Marchia Media in the middle, and Marchia Nova on the right. The three labeled sections are within a small black dashed line which represents the border of the march. Within these three sections there are labels for towns, rivers, and lakes. Berlin is situated in the center of Marchia Media and labeled with a small font. Outside of this march the kingdoms of Saxony and Poland are labeled to the south and east, respectively. The detailed cartouche in the bottom left corner translates to, “This marquisate was first erected by the emperor Henry I in 923, and he was the first marquis named Henry, for once he was under the Saxon leaders.” The text is surrounded by a dark yellow mechanical-looking border and four inward facing heads with red cardinal hats. Angels and figures exist in the ornate border of the cartouche, with a crest showing three red dots at the top of the image. A scale showing 12 German Miles is in the bottom right corner, outlined with similar imagery as the cartouche in the lower left. The map is surrounded by a detailed border, with labels in the four cardinal directions: “Septemtrio” in the North, “Occidens” in the West, “Oriens” in the East, and “Meridies” in the South. The map was created by Abraham Ortelius who was a prominent mapmaker at the time and was based out of Antwerp (Koeman 2007). Ortelius was known for creating the first modern day atlas, which may have featured many regional maps like this one. Because Germany at this time was made up of different territories and regions, many German mapmakers at this time made maps about warfare and political history (Meurer 2007). This particular map doesn’t seem to focus on making such claims and focuses instead on the landscape features within the march. Emma Watson ‘23 and Chloe Truebenbach ‘23
Ortelius, Abraham. “Brandebvrgensis marchae descriptio.” Place of publication not identified: publisher not identified, 1598.
Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G5700 1400-1800 Map 10)
Livio Sanuta’s Geografia dell’Africa contains 12 two-page black and white maps, sketched by Livio and engraved by his brother Giulio, depicting Africa and its surrounding waters from a variety of perspectives. Published in Venice in 1588, this book, including its maps, builds on foundational trends in Venetian cartography. Because the Venetian economy depended on maritime trade, much of Venetian cartography, beginning with the creation of portolan charts, focused on waterways. Eventually, by the sixteenth century, during Sanuto’s lifetime, hydrographic mapping took hold as cartographers sought to map river channels and systems for the purpose of environmental planning. Giacomo Gastaldi’s topologically-focused Map of 1564 presents the southern tip of Africa’s hydrographical system and inspired Sanuto’s maps shortly after. Like Gastaldi, Sanuto sought to depict as many of Africa’s geographical features as possible based on eye witness accounts, rather than simply treating Ptolemy’s Geography, a dominant text at the time, as incontestable. Maps one through 11 of Sanuto’s work capture specific regions of Africa, and five of those maps depict different sections of the Mediterranean Sea and the African coastline. The other six maps depict snapshots of other corners of Africa. The twelfth map depicts Africa as a whole. Due to Sanuto’s geographic focus, hills and mountain ranges symbolized by bumplike shapes litter this map, although the difference in size among the symbols is somewhat unclear. Sanuto also depicts rivers, which appear on the map as lines. Each of the rivers are labeled in Italian, as are the surrounding seas, in addition to some of the cities and larger regions. Sanuto concentrates most of his labels and geographic features in the top of his map though, causing some of the labels to almost blend in with the geographic symbols. The surrounding areas of the map primarily depict the ocean, which is represented by a collection of faint dots, and a few sketches of ships and sea monsters. It also includes some labeled islands. In the 11 more zoomed in maps, the mountain ranges and waterways become much clearer, as do their labels, as they no longer overlap. Some of these maps also include port labels, sketches of volcanoes, and sketches of manmade structures, such as castles or clusters of teepees. Additionally, because these maps cover smaller areas, Sanuto varies the sizes of his symbols more, making the difference in size among mountain ranges particularly noticeable. He also adds some indistinguishable clusters of symbols that could represent different types of vegetation. Though maps one through 11 include more details than the twelfth map, Sanuto emphasizes the same primary geographic features across all the maps, and each map contains some form of scale marker, in addition to labeled latitude lines, reflecting the increasing focus on geography and proportion in sixteenth century Venetian cartography. Overall, these maps, and the text that follows in the rest of the Geografia, seek to highlight places of interest in Africa and to describe cities and the people living within them. (Piper Brown 2025)
Sanuto, Livio. Geografia dell’Africa. Venice: Damiano Zenaro, 1588.
Sanuto, Livio. Geografia dell’Africa: Venice 1588. Amsterdam: Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1965.
Carleton Library Special Collections (Folio) (DT7 .S25 1965)
Considered to be the first illuminated manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, the Dante Poggiali (named for the man who discovered it) contains the full story of Dante’s tour of hell, purgatory, and heaven. The illustration here is one of the largest and most detailed in the several hundred page volume. Decorated with vibrant colors and gold leaf, the work is loosely attributed to Pacino di Buonaguida, a Florentine painter who follows the style of the hugely influential Giotto and his humanist concern. Giotto’s artwork, like the image of Dante in the cosmos, is concerned with reconciling the human experience with the mystical nature of God’s creation. In humanist tradition, while the figures look true to life, the setting of the cosmos is abstract, merging the worlds of mortal life and God. The Dante Poggiali attempts to symbolically represent that which, according to the story, cannot ordinarily be comprehended by man. In the narrative, Dante himself is blinded by the heavens and puzzled by the order of nature, which must be described for him as he ascends away from the Earth. The lack of detail in the representation of the cosmos invites the viewer to map the particulars of space themselves, aided by the accompanying text. The character Dante is guided through the cosmic realms by the poet Virgil and eventually his lost love Beatrice, as seen here. Dante, in his typical red, is led by the embrace of the winged Beatrice to meet Christ, flanked by two angels. Dante is the only living human in this imagination of God's geometry, making him a first explorer in a space uncharted. The cosmos depicted are set in rings of deep blues, plotting the boundaries of the realms leading to Christ. Closest to Earth is the heaven of the moon, noted by the silver circle, then the six golden planets, realm of the stars, and eventually the place where the angels, and eventually God, reside. What is unusual about the illumination is that typically the Ptolemaic universe is centered around the Earth, with the rings of the cosmos radiating out to heaven. Alighieri was faithful to this classical model when writing the Divine Comedy, since he like many medieval thinkers had access and reverence for classical texts. Instead, the illustration is inconsistent with the poem in that we see rings concentric to the Christ figure and angels, with Dante and Beatrice ascending upwards to reach that center. A possible interpretation is described in Dante’s Cosmos and the Geometry of Paradise, where the universe is made up of distinct but connected layers or sheets of space, allowing both a central Earth and a central realm of God in paradise simultaneously. Another inconsistency with the poem is that Dante and Beatrice never meet a human visualization of Christ, yet he floats before them in the Dante Poggiali painting. The artist perhaps intended to represent the movement of the character’s ascension through vast space toward God rather than a literal image of the cosmos. Canto I, the section the illustration precedes, is whimsical and philosophical rather than describing plot action. Here, the visual effect aims to reflect Dante’s wonder as opposed to a mimetic order of the universe. (Bella Crum 2025)
Rome, Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze, Pal. 313
Carleton Library Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving)(PQ4301 .A1 2013
Set as but one element of a collection of facsimiles, this map finds itself alongside other colonial Spanish maps of the territories of New Spain that make up modern day México. These maps include: - 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)
Colección: Sección de Cartografía y Artes Gráficas — Signatura: C-099-013 — Nº de registro: 04035 — Notas: En el ángulo inferior derecho sello en tinta negra con las siglas de la Academia: "R.A.D.L.H."
Madrid : Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte : Testimonio Compañía Editorial
commissioned by the magistrate don Cristóbal Godínez y Maldonado on 9 July, 1581
Special Collections, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 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://www.facsimilefinder.com/facsimiles/mapas-de-mexico-archivo-indias-facsimile https://bibliotecadigital.rah.es/es/consulta/registro.do?id=62218
sheet map taken from a collection, 443 x 703 mm
Carleton Library Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) (G4411.A1 1550 M3 2002) https://bridge.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01BRC_INST/1tn7c8c/alma991016542481902971
This portolan chart of the Mediterranean, drawn in 1508 by Andrea Benincacsa, is illustrated on a complete piece of parchment. Benincasa, the son of prolific map maker Grazioso Benincasa, was both a chart maker and public servant at the turn of the 15th Century in Ancona, Italy. In the city, he was in charge of harbor fortifications for a number of years, though he continued to make charts as a part-time occupation. Portolan charts were a form of nautical maps utilized in the medieval Mediterranean Sea. This emphasis on navigation is evidenced by the highly detailed depiction of the coastline, including both harbors and hazards to ships. Though it is likely that portolan charts were used on board vessels, this map is among a contingent of high-quality works that were meant for display by merchants, captains, and other individuals interested in or tied to the maritime world in the Mediterranean. Upon first glance, the Rhumb lines that form a dense array across the parchment signal the navigational utility of the chart. The patterning represents wind lines which extend from illustrated wind roses at various points. These lines are drawn with alternating colors, with black ink representing the four cardinal winds and red ink representing the quarter winds. These wind lines aided in the execution and planning of maritime journeys as sailors plotted routes along known winds to reach the final destination efficiently. Though this map centers the Mediterranean Sea, it also includes Northern Africa, the British Isles in the Eastern Atlantic, the Black Sea, the Levant, and Northern Europe. Given that this map is meant for maritime use, coastal cities and ports are the main focus of the chart. Finely written place-names run perpendicularly along the detailed coast lines in both red and black ink. Red ink is utilized to denote cities and ports of importance. Through the writing of these place-names, the reader can see the expansive knowledge of the greater Mediterranean held by chart makers and navigators as well as the region's interconnectedness through sea travel. In addition to place-names, flags and city vignettes are used to denote places of importance and political possession. The city-scapes range in size, thus giving emphasis to locations such as Genoa, Babylon, and Venice, while cities such as Rome and Jerusalem are smaller in stature. It is important to note that Benincasa has included a vignette of Acona on the map. While this depiction is uncommon for portolan charts, it is an intentional move by the cartographer to confer importance upon his home city in relation to the larger Mediterranean. While this map centers on maritime travel, it includes significant inland detail. The most pronounced includes a number of mountain ranges. These depictions appear in every geographic region of the map, the most prominent being the Atlas Mountains which span horizontally across Northern Africa and form a three-pronged shape on the eastern end of the range. Upon closer examination of these mountain ranges, Benincasa has depicted them as sets of tan hills dotted with small trees. In places, there are small buildings protruding from the hillsides. Interestingly, on Mt. Sinai, which sits slightly south of Jerusalem, Benincasa has drawn St. Catherine's Monastery on its summit. Additionally, there are a few human and animal figures on the chart. In Northern Africa, there are two large and regally dressed rulers, with the easterly one being the Sultan of Babylon. In the northeastern corner of the map, there is another finely dressed ruler under a canopy. Next to the Red Sea, which is aptly shaded red, there is a large elephant with a structure on its back. In sum, these details not only depict a map concerned with coastal locations and travel across the larger Mediterranean, but also with the inland topography and its inhabitants, thus giving the reader a considerably more contextual understanding of the region. (Jesse Cogan, 2027)
Benincasa, Andrea. Portolan Chart; Borgiano VIII. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1508.
Seekarte des Andrea Benincasa (Borgiano VIII). Ancona, Italy, 1508. Facsimile with introduction and commentaries by Arthur Dürst. Vatican City : Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1984.
https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Borg.Carte.naut.VIII
Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G3200 1508 .D87 1984)
The collection of images in Matrakçı Nasuh’s Menazilname serves as an “account of Sultan Süleyman Süleyman Khan’s Iraqi campaign,” according to an article on the map from Facsimile Finder. In this book there are 107 paintings printed with ink on paper. These paintings show, in stylized detail, the places that the Ottoman army visited while traveling from Istanbul to Baghdad and their return. The artist was a Bosnian in the Ottoman court who is regarded as a talented geographer, historian, and mathematician, but was not on the court of painters. The type of cartography that Nasuh illustrated matched the tradition of Ottoman cartography at the time: highly stylized and not based on navigational accuracy, instead displaying conditions and places at the time the Ottomans encountered them. Whether it be the vast countryside in spring with vibrant greens, Mesopotamian villages, or major cities with landmarks represented, this type of map serves as an aid to visualize the landscape of the campaign, even centuries later. 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.”
Nasuh, Matrakçı. Beyân-ı Menâzil-i Sefer-i Irâkeyn-i Sultân Süleymân Hân; Menazilname. Istanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi, 1537.
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.
Presentation at Facsimile Finder
View of Istanbul at Wikimedia Commons
Special Collections (Books, Quarto) ; DR507.N373 A83 2015
The van Keulen family firm, known as “In de Gecroonde Lootsman”, which created the Zee-Atlas, “dominated Dutch maritime cartography for two centuries,” roughly from the 1680s to the 1880s (History of Cartography 837; cites De Vries 2005), and became the official chart suppliers for the Dutch East India Company in 1743 (Ritchie, 15). In the seventeenth century, the Netherlands was world renowned for its flourishing maritime cartography business, and, in fact, had a “near-monopoly” on sea charting until the mid-1600s (History of Cartography 898). Interestingly, Johannes van Keulen, the founder of the firm, started out in 1678 not as a cartographer, but as a book binder and seller, later branching out into protractor making, before getting a privilege from the governments of Holland and West Friesland in 1680 to make pilot guides and sea atlases. His first publication, the 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.
Van Keulen, Johannes. Zee-Atlas. Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1680
Keulen, Johannes van. Zee-Atlas : de grootie nieuwe vermeerderde Zee-Atlas ofte Water-Werelt ; [ein Meilenstein der See-Kartographie]. Nachdr. mit einem Vorw. von Imre Josef Demhardt und einer Übers. der niederländ. Einl. von Sigrid Barthel. Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchges, 2008.
Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) G1026.K48 2008.
Treasury of the True Riches of Salvation
The star chart in Stephan Fridolin’s Treasury of the True Riches of Salvation is a woodcut print depicting Earth at the center of the solar system. Stephan Fridolin worked in a Franciscan monastery in Nuremberg, Germany where he wrote Schatzbehalter to spread knowledge of Christ’s passion. The maps and drawings in the 1491 book are attributed to Michael Wolgemut, who engraved 96 unique woodcuts for this book. Michael Wolgemut was a medieval artist who specialized in woodcuts as seen in Schatzbehalter. Michael was known to be a competent artist but is most well known for mentoring Albrecht Dürer who went on to be an extremely successful printer and painter. The focus of the chart is Earth as the center of the universe. Earth is represented by an image of baby Jesus Christ lying on the ground. Jesus is surrounded by two women, one of which is Mary. Mary has a halo around her head while the other woman’s hair is covered by cloth. Rolling hills lie behind Jesus with houses and foliage as background detail. Ruffled cloth is drawn to surround this image of Jesus. Outside Earth is a series of concentric circles divided into 36 segments. The outermost circle contains a symbol of each zodiac sign with Gemini at the top. The closest circle to Earth depicts the moon in the same segment as Taurus, the next contains Mercury which is portrayed between Sagittarius and Capricorn, the next contains Venus with Aquarius, followed by the Sun, again depicted between Sagittarius and Capricorn, Mars under Aries, Jupiter between Libra and Virgo, and lastly Saturn under Gemini. Each celestial body occupies a circle further from Earth at the center as the bodies presumably got further from Earth. The moon and sun have symbols of their own rather than the six-pointed star symbol used for the other five planets in the solar system. Because the planets appear static in a constantly moving solar system and because Jesus Christ as the centerpiece of the chart, it can be assumed that this chart depicts Christ's horoscope from the day he was born. A hand is seen under the horoscope representing someone holding up the horoscope to the reader of the book. The rest of the page is left blank while a rectangular border encompasses the horoscope and the hand. This chart was created by Stephan Fridolin and Michael Wolgemut as a guide for nuns at the Convent of Saint Klara in Nuremberg to enhance their passion for Christianity. The visuals in Schatzbehalter were created to be meditated upon by nuns which would give them enlightenment and knowledge through extensive observation of the woodcuts. Notably, the Schatzbehalter was published during the German reform period and was reproduced and shared by nuns to strengthen the spiritual life of the German people. This chart symbolizes the massive progress made in astronomy during the medieval period. Most early medieval star charts, including this one, contained simple information based mostly on ancient texts rather than observation of the stars. Through the 16th century, much more emphasis was placed on observation of the night sky, and books such as star atlases were published that mapped the night sky and its constellations. The 16th century also saw the movement from geocentrism to heliocentrism disproving the planetary model depicted in the Treasury of the True Riches of Salvation. The chart is an important example of evolving medieval technology as it relies on both printmaking techniques and astronomical practices. Michael Wolgemut was especially important to the printing community as he mentored Albrecht Dürer who was important in developing engraving technology and technique. (Liam Atkins 2024)
Stephan Fridolin. Schatzbehalter der wahren Reichtümer des Heils. Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1491.
Fridolin, Stephan. Schatzbehalter. Portland, Or: Collegium Graphicum, 1972.
Digitized Copy at the Library of Congress
Carleton Library Special Collections (Books, Quarto) (BT590.I3 F7 1972)