MAP. 



675 



to show the limits of states, the positions of towns 

 and cities, the subdivisions of the country into pro- 

 vinces, departments, counties, &c.; another may be 

 devoted more particularly to delineating the natural 

 features of the region, its mountains, rivers, &c. ; 

 and details are selected accordingly. A military map 

 should indicate every pass, ford, obstruction, &c., 

 which may aftect a march, facilitate or obstruct a 

 manoeuvre. A nautical map, or chart, should indicate 

 every reef, sand-bank, or rock, delineating, as far as 

 possible, not only the irregularities of the bottom, 

 but the direction, &c., of the shores. To the seamen, 

 the nature of the bottom of the sea is interesting only 

 within soundings; but to the physical geographer, it 

 is also important, as illustrative of the whole system 

 of mountains and geological formations on the globe. 

 There are also historical, botanical, mineralogical, 

 &c., maps, designed to illustrate some particular 

 point. Elementary maps for instruction are not in- 

 tended to atlvance the science by the publication of 

 new details, but should be adapted to convey the 

 known truths of the science in a simple form ; and, 

 for this purpose, a numerous series of small maps is 

 better than a few, constructed on a large scale, with 

 minute exactness. In collecting and combining de- 

 tails, astronomical observations and geodesical mea- 

 surements must be employed, when possible, at least 

 for the prominent points, and, where the author is 

 deserted by these, the accounts of intelligent travel- 

 lers, of former geographers, &c., must supply the 

 deficiencies. Maps are engraved on tin, copper, and 

 other metals; also, sometimes, in wood, and, of late, 

 have been lithographed with much success for cer- 

 tain purposes. Soon after the invention of the art 

 of printing, an attempt was made to print maps like 

 musical notes, by Sweynheim ; later by Bueckink, in 

 1478; in 1777, by Breitkopf, in Leipsic. Haas, at 

 Basil, produced pretty good specimens (see his Carte 

 des Partages de Pologne en, 1772, 1793, et 1795); 

 and, quite recently, the same has been attempted in 

 Boston; bnt the main object of cheap maps thus 

 made, chiefly for children, an impressive and clear 

 survey, seems not entirely attained. If we consider 

 the drawing of the country ordered by Joshua (Jo- 

 shua xviii. 9) as a map, then the origin of geographi- 

 cal projection is very old. We find traces of maps 

 with the Egyptians, in the times of Sesostris (q. v.), who 

 caused his hereditary dominions and his conquests to 

 be represented on tablets for his people. Scylax, 

 Eratosthenes (270 B. C.) and Hipparchias (130 B. C.) 

 followed him. Certain traces of maps are found in 

 the times of Aristagoras of Miletus, and Socrates, 

 who, by way of a reproof to the pride of Alcibiades, 

 caused him to search for his own estates on a map. 

 The Romans, at their triumphs, had pictures of the 

 conquered countries carried before them, and had 

 drawings of their territories in their archives, as 

 Varro says. Caesar himself took part in the survey- 

 ing of different countries. There is a map extant, 

 perhaps of the times of Diocletian, certainly not later 

 than Theodosius, a military map, for the use of the 

 Iloman army, called the Peutinger table, from having 

 belonged to a learned scholar of this name. (See 

 Peuttnger.) Ptolemy drew maps according to the 

 stereographic projection. Agathodasmon, an artist 

 of Alexandria, drew twenty-six maps for the geogra- 

 phy of Ptolemy, and with him the first period of the 

 history of maps is generally closed. They were drawn 

 from the accounts of travellers without well settled 

 principles. The second period, which extends to the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century, the time of the 

 famor.s Behaim (q. v.), can show metal globes, plane 

 spheres and maps. Nicolaus Donis corrected the 

 maps of Ptolemy, had them cut in wood, and added 

 five new ones. Sebastian Munster followed in his 



steps. In the third period, maps became more and 

 more perfect. Particular credit is due to those of 

 Abraham Ortelius, Gerhard Mercator (born 1512, 

 died 1594), William and John Blau (who produced 

 616 maps), Sanson, Schenk, Visschen, De Witt, 

 Hondius. After them, John Baptist Homann be- 

 came famous, who consulted the most distinguished 

 astronomers and mathematicians, and prepared 200 

 new maps, hi regard to the character of the early 

 maps, and early geography in general, the chapter 

 on the progress of geographical science in Lardner's 

 Maritime and Inland Discovery contains valuable 

 information. The following facts are taken from 

 that source. The most eminent geographers of the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were men of 

 learning, who, in the spirit of that age, adopted 

 with zeal and obstinacy all the mistakes committed 

 by the writers of antiquity, which thereby acquired 

 an authority that was very difficult to be overthrown. 

 The first requisite, in a correct system of geography, 

 is to determine accurately the relative position of 

 places ; but, in this, the ancients were guilty of gross 

 errors. The method which they employed to deter- 

 mine the latitude of places admitted of but little 

 precision, and their determination of longitudes was 

 still more erroneous. The countries with which the 

 Greek and Roman writers were best acquainted were 

 those on the Mediterranean, yet Constantinople is 

 placed by Ptolemy two degrees north of its true 

 position. The Arab writers increased this error to 

 four degrees. The breadth of the Mediterranean 

 was also increased far beyond the truth. Carthage 

 is made 4 32' south of its true place. The errors in 

 longitude were far greater, the length of the Medi- 

 terranean being made 62 instead of 41 28' : in 

 other words, it was made 1400 English miles longer 

 than the reality. This enormous error continued in 

 the maps of Europe, with little variation, till the 

 beginning of the last century. The difference in 

 the estimated longitude of Rome and Nuremberg, 

 two 'of the best known places in Europe, varied 

 above 500 miles, from the fifteenth to the seven- 

 teenth century. The error is still more remarkable, 

 as existing in the longitude of places which are 

 nearly in the same latitude. Cadiz and Ferrara, 

 for instance, were placed nearly 600 miles too far 

 asunder ; and this error continued till the close of 

 the seventeenth century. Errors of a wilder kind, 

 originating in credulity rather than in inaccurate ob- 

 servation, found a place in the maps of the middle 

 ages, and were slowly banished at a recent date by 

 the improvements of astronomy and navigation. In 

 a map of the world, published at Venice, in 1546, by 

 Giacomo, Asia and America are united in lat. 38. 

 Thibet is placed at the junction of the two continents. 

 In another Venetian map, by Tramezini, dated 1554, 

 the distance from Quinsai, in China, to the gulf of 

 California, in America, is only 31, the two conti- 

 nents being unduly stretched some thousand miles 

 respectively to the east and the west. The best 

 maps were long deficient in correct distances, par- 

 ticularly in longitude. South America is repre- 

 sented by Fischer as 62, or above 4300 miles across, 

 while North America, on the same map, extends 

 from the mouth of the St Lawrence on the east, to 

 New Albion on the west, through a space of 150, 

 or above 9000 miles. Hondius, in 1630, ventured, 

 indeed, to abridge Asia of the undue dimensions 

 given it by Ptolemy, and to reduce its extension 

 towards the east to 165. But his example was not 

 followed ; and many instances might be adduced, in 

 which the authority of Ptolemy, who was but slightly 

 acquainted with one half of the globe, was blindly 

 submitted to in an age when Europeans wandered 

 over its whole surface. A great step was made 

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