Newsletter 1998
Volume 2.3 News
We are delighted to announce the publication of Volume 2.3 of the History
of Cartography series, Cartography in the Traditional African, American,
Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies. This book provides an evocative
picture of how indigenous peoples view and represent their worlds. It is
the first book-length attempt to document traditional cartography outside
Western and Asian societies. Written to the research and presentation standards
of the previous three books, we expect that Volume 2.3 will shed new light
on the nature of maps and will offer a rich resource for disciplines such
as anthropology, archaeology, art history, ethnology, geography, history,
psychology, and sociology.
Volume 3 News
Although Volume 2.3 was not published until November 1998 and consumed
the majority of our time last year, we were able to focus more on Volume
3, Cartography in the European Renaissance, as the year progressed.
In January we began our search for a postdoctoral candidate to work on
the volume. We were fortunate to attract two historians, both coincidentally
from the University of California at Berkeley. Victoria Morse and Daniel
Brownstein's first task was to review and revise the Volume 3 outline,
concentrating mainly on the introductory essays needed to set the stage
for the Renaissance period and the national cartographic traditions. Both
are helping to edit essays and recruit authors in addition to writing their
own contributions to the volume.
Our authors are an eminent group of scholars from several disciplines.
To complement this excellent team, we have appointed an advisory board
whose members have broad backgrounds in cultural history. Their suggestions,
criticisms, and advice concerning 'the big picture' will be essential in
shaping Volume 3.
Volume 3 Advisory Board
Denis Cosgrove, Dept. of Geography, Royal Holloway College
Catherine Delano Smith, Institute of Historical Research
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Oxford University
Paula Findlen, Dept. of History, Stanford University
Anthony Grafton, Dept. of History, Princeton University
Stephen Greenblatt, Dept. of English, Harvard University
Richard Helgerson, Dept. of English, University of California—Santa
Barbara
Christian Jacob, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Richard Kagan, Dept. of History, The Johns Hopkins University
Martin Kemp, Dept. of the History of Art, University of Oxford
Chandra Mukerji, Dept. of Communications, University of California—San
Diego
Simon Schama, Dept. of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
Sarah Tyacke, Director, Public Record Office
Glyndwr Williams, Dept. of History, Queen Mary College
François Ollive's map of the Mediterranean, ca. 1664, is exceptionally
highly ornamented with coats of arms, ships, animals, knights, and rulers.
It also contains seven city views in rectangular frames showing Marseille
and its most important trading partners of the time: La Ciotat, Algiers,
Tunis, and Tripoli. Ollive's works are recognizable for their floral decorations
and for the heavy use of green and orange. Size of the original: 130 cm
x 88 cm. Photograph courtesy of the Musée de la Marine, Paris.
Volume 6 News
Volume 6 coeditor Mark Monmonier had a fulfilling year. Syracuse University
promoted him to Distinguished Professor of Geography, and the University
of Chicago Press awarded him a contract for a new book on legislative redistricting,
to appear in 2001. In March 1999 the Press will publish his history of
meteorological cartography, Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned
to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather. On the lecture circuit, Mark
attended the fall meeting of the Philip Lee Phillips Society at the Library
of Congress and presented talks at Rutgers University's School of Communication,
Information and Library Science; the Globe Corner Bookstore, Cambridge,
Massachusetts; and GIS conferences in Nebraska and Minnesota.
On a subcontract from the University of Wisconsin, Mark opened a History
of Cartography Project office in Syracuse and hired a graduate assistant,
whose duties include planning support and compiling a bibliography that
Volume 6 authors will share. Last summer Mark and David reworked the Volume
6 outline and collaborated on a major proposal to the National Science
Foundation. The revised outline reflects extensive comments from participants
at the planning conference held in October 1997 at the Library of Congress.
David Woodward's News
1998 seemed to be the year for posting publications on the world wide web.
The University of Chicago Press web site featured the Volume 2.3 introduction
during December, and David's “The Description of the Four Parts of the
World: Camocio's Wall Maps in the Bell Library and Their Place in the Italian
Tradition,” James Ford Bell Lecture No. 34, can now be found at http://www.bell.lib.umn.edu/wood.html.
He also published two brief articles in Mercator's World: “Maps as Popular
Prints” (May/June 1998): 22-29 and “Cartography in Indigenous Societies”
(September/October 1998): 28-33.
David’s talks related to the Project included “Another Projection,”
closing remarks to Mapping the Early Modern World: A Conference at the
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., 13-14 March 1998, and a commentary
at “Mapping by the Other: Non-European Traditional Cartography,” 23rd Annual
Social Science History Association, Chicago, 19 November 1998. Other Volume
2.3 authors delivering papers and comments at the SSHA session were Bill
Gartner, G. Malcolm Lewis, Eric Silverman, and Neil Whitehead.
Staff News
Postdoctoral fellows Daniel Brownstein and Victoria Morse both have excellent
qualifications for contributing to Volume 3. Dr. Brownstein is a student
of Randolph Starn with broad interests in Renaissance culture, humanism
and early modern intellectual history, and the history of medicine. His
interest in theories of representation in the Renaissance can naturally
be applied to maps. Dr. Morse was trained as a medievalist under Robert
Brentano and has interests in the intellectual and religious world of the
Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe, art history, and the history of the
book. She brings superior contextual skills to the study of the medieval
Renaissance transition.
We also welcomed two new project assistants in 1998. Peter Thorsheim,
a dissertator in history, is editing and checking references for manuscripts.
Karen Bianucci, graduate student in geography, is ordering illustrations
and requesting publication rights.
Samir Murty, the Project’s Research Experience for Undergraduate NSF
scholar, has been researching the editions of Ptolemy’s Geography
published at Ulm in 1482 and 1486. He has visited several US institutions
to compare about 25 copies for block and color variations. We hope to be
able to incorporate some of his findings into Volume 3.
G. G. Kraill von Bemebergh, a German military surveyor, was commissioned
by Gustavus II Adolphus to work for Sweden. These geometrical instruments
from his work Tractatus geometricus et fortificationis (1618) illustrate
his remarkable talents. Photograph courtesy of the Krigsarkivet, Stockholm.
Funding News
NEH is currently considering our proposal for support from July 1999 through
June 2001. In addition, we have submitted a revised proposal to NSF for
the three-year period beginning September 1999. If awarded, the NSF grant
will support work at Syracuse University for Volume 6. Perhaps now more
than ever, we are relying on donations from individuals, corporations,
and private organizations. These gifts enable us to maintain the quality
for which the History series has become well known. Many thanks
to all who made contributions in 1998.
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