49 mAY 2014 Malta’s Great Siege, 1565 In this issue: • The mystery surrounding the Matteo Perez d’Aleccio map prints of the Great Siege of Malta of 1565 • Report on an international workshop: History of Iberian Cartography • Reports on our Annual General Meeting and Map Evening • … and the usual departments STANDARD WORKS ON THE HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY Free catalogue on request HES & DE GRAAF Publishers BV PO Box 540, 3990 GH Houten, Netherlands T (31) 30 6390071, F (31) 30 6380099 www.hesdegraaf.com [email protected] For more information about our facsimile edition of the Atlas Blaeu – Van der Hem: www.blaeuvanderhem.com Henri Godts Avenue Louise 230/6 1050 Brussels Tel. +32(0)2 647 85 48 Fax +32(0)2 640 73 32 Dealer and Auctioneer of rare books, manuscripts, maps and atlases Info from: [email protected] Catalogues can be seen on www.godts.com 2 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 May 2014 EDITORIAL Dear Map Friends, You may recall that, back in 2009, Dr Alberto Ganado gave us a comprehensive overview of the history of the ’Maps of Malta’ (with a seven page article in our Newsletters No 33 and 34). In this issue Joseph Schirò, secretary of the Maltese Map Society, focuses on a specific map of Malta — that by Matteo Perez d’Aleccio of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565 — on which he conducted very thorough research. This captivating detective story takes us through the artistic world of the 16th century. In this issue, the Map Circle opens up to the world of Iberian cartography, thanks to Thomas Horst who has left his home city of Munich (see Newsletter No 46) for Lisbon; he gives us an update on his work there at the Interuniversitary Center for the History of Science and Technology, and a report on a recent workshop on cartography. You will also find news of the most recent activities of the Map Circle: the excursion to Bruges (illustrated on the centre fold), the Annual General Meeting and the Map Evening. Cartographically yours, Jean-Louis Renteux Vice-President & Editor [email protected] Contents Looks at books The Fourth Part of the World 4 Japoniae Insulae. The mapping of Japan 6 A curious and impertinent geography of France 7 Meridians - Texts, debates and passions about the Paris and Greenwich meridians 8 Shorter bibliographical notes 9 History and Cartography The mystery surrounding the Matteo Perez d’Aleccio map prints of the Great Siege of Malta of 1565 11 BIMCC news Cartographic treasures of Bruges - BIMCC excursion - 18 February 2014 17 How I got into cartography: Tom Harper 20 Maps, Globes, Instruments and Books in the Early Modern History of Science 22 History of Iberian Cartography: from the Mediterranean to the World - Workshop 24 BIMCC Annual Activity Report, March 2013 – March 2014 25 16th Annual General Meeting 26 16th Map Evening 27 Cartography in times of war and peace - Symposium and conference 29 International news & events 30 Auction calendar 33 Cover: Detail of one of the frescoes at the Palace of the Grand Masters in Valletta, by Perez D'Aleccio. It attempts to show the main successive events of the Great Siege of 1565 as if they were happening at the same time. This painting inspired the copper plate engraved by Perez D'Aleccio, subject of the article on p. 11. May 2014 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 33 LOOKS AT BOOKS I The Fourth Part of the World. An astonishing epic of global discovery, imperial ambition and the birth of America. By Toby Lester Free Press. New York. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. 462 pp. including 82 figures in black/white and 11 full colour plates. Also 19 not numbered figures of details of the Waldseemüller map in the heading of each chapter. Hardcover 2009 (paperback 2010). E-book also available. ISBN (hardcover) 978-1-4165-3531-7, (paperback) 978-1-4165-3534-8. Also available in French: ‘La Quatrième Partie du Monde’. Ed. JC Lattès; ISBN 978-2-7096-3337-6. The price varies around 25-45 EUR. First of all I would like to warn an American journalist, scholar and readers of this Looks at Books that I am contributing editor to The Atlantic (a not a professional cartographer and that cultural, literary and political magazine, I have not received any formal schooling based in Washington, D.C.). He is a in geographical history. I have been former Peace Corps volunteer and since my youth just a lover of old maps United Nations observer. He lives in the and their history. So I do not claim to Boston area. The present book is his evaluate this book on its historical first, for which he received many exactitude. Others have done this before awards and it was even named Book of and most with very positive results1. But the Year. His second book, Da Vinci’s I was so enthusiastic after having read Ghost (2012), deals with Leonardo’s the French version that I bought the famous drawing of a man in a circle. English version to read it for a second Now to the book. The Fourth Part of time in order to review it for Maps in the World is a rather thick volume but History to share my enthusiasm with beautifully written and vividly told and others. never boring. Lester’s first aim is to tell The author, Toby Lester (°1964), is the story of the Waldseemüller map of 1. See e.g. : Simon Winchester, author of The Map that Changed the World [book about William Smith (1769-1839) English surveyor, who made the first geological maps]. Paulus Swaen GGGGrrrraaaaffffiiiieeeekkkk eeeennnn oooouuuuddddeeee kkkkaaaaaaaarrrrtttteeeennnn AAAAaaaannnnkkkkoooooooopppp eeeennnn vvvveeeerrrrkkkkoooooooopppp Internet Map Auctions RRRRoooobbbb CCCCaaaammmmpppp TTTTeeeellll.... ++++33332222((((0000))))11111111 555599996666333333338888 BBBBeeeeuuuurrrrssssssssttttrrrraaaaaaaatttt 44446666 GGGGssssmmmm ++++33332222((((0000))))444499998888 777777772222555500005555 March-May-September-November 3333888833332222 UUUUllllbbbbeeeeeeeekkkk–––– WWWWeeeelllllllleeeennnn FFFFaaaaxxxx++++33332222((((0000))))11111111 555599996666333333338888 wwwwwwwwwwww....lllleeeexxxx----aaaannnnttttiiiiqqqquuuuaaaa....bbbbeeee rrrroooobbbb....ccccaaaammmmpppp@@@@lllleeeexxxx----aaaannnnttttiiiiqqqquuuuaaaa....bbbbeeee Maps, Globes, Views, Atlases, Prints Catalogue on: www.swaen.com E-mail: [email protected] Tel. +1 727 687 32 98 Achter Clarenburg 2 3511 JJ UTRECHT Business by appointment only THE NETHERLANDS [email protected] 4 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 May 2014 1507, which is described as America’s birth certificate. which he believed to be India. Amerigo Vespucci He starts in the preface (xxi-xxiv) with a short review followed him to the New World (1499-1502). which highlights the history of the map. In a prologue In Part Three, The Whole World, (p. 325-398) we (Awakening p. 1-19) he continues to describe the see that Lester takes up Waldseemüller from where further vicissitudes of the history of Waldseemüller’s he stopped at the end of his prologue. He describes creation which ended with the acquisition of the now in the finest details the history of the famous map by the Library of Congress in 2003 for Cosmography and the maps, until the final destination the highest price ever paid for a map. (Finally the map of the 1507 map in the Library of Congress in 2007. In was handed over by Angela Merkel to the U.S. in this part we get acquainted with the role of Matthias 2007). Ringmann, a collaborator in the creation of the Then comes the core of the book (p. 23 – 323): Waldseemüller map, Alberto Cantino, a secret agent Part One, the Old World and Part Two, the New of the Duke of Ferrara, Sebastian Münster who copied World. No less than 300 pages are dedicated to the the 1507 map, Amerigo Vespucci himself, and even history of mapmaking before the 16th century. The Nicolaus Copernicus and many other characters and following pages (p. 325 – 393) form Part Three, the facts worth mentioning in the margin of the Whole World. The titles of these three parts are a bit Waldseemüller map. Many of these things may also confusing, especially because the entire world is more be found in J. W. Hessler’s and Ch. van Duzer’s book, than what they actually cover! Seeing the World anew: the Radical Vision of Martin In Part One, the Old World (p. 25-109), we meet Waldseemüller’s 1507 & 1516 World Maps2. Finally, in among many others Claudius Ptolemy, Matthew Paris an appendix, the author also describes the so-called with his medieval geographical thoughts, Macrobius Stevens-Brown map which bears the name America with the Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, Isidore and apparently was considered a lost St. Dié map of of Seville with the first T-O map, Willem van Waldseemüller (1506). Ruysbroek in search of the Great Khan, and the These three parts add up to quite a lot of reading; descriptions of elaborate Christian mappae mundi, and it really is more than about the vicissitudes of and much more. Lester ends this part with the hybrid Waldseemüller, Ringman, Vespucci and others. It is a world of Petrus Vesconte (1321) who brought together book that surveys mapmaking as a whole and the way features of the mappae mundi and the marine charts, people imagined how the world was before Columbus. and with the ideas of Roger Bacon who stated that in That this book is called by some reviewers a study on the global scientific search ‘seeing is knowing’. I was how America got its name and in detail about the personally very enthusiastic when I discovered in this Waldseemüller map is really an understatement. It is part Saint Brendan (6th c.) the Irish monk on his seven much more. This is the main reason why I think this is years’ long voyage in a sailing boat, Prester John the a book that should really have its place on the legendary priest-king (12th c.), Sir John Mandeville bookshelf of every amateur, map collector or student. (14th c.) the mythical world traveller, the Polo (14th c.) The 82 figures and even the colour plates are not the Venetian merchants, and many others of whom I of the best quality. But this does not matter since it is always wanted to know how they influenced mainly a study (and reading) book and one of the best cartography. And here I found it. I have ever had in my hands. A timeline, an In Part Two, the New World (p. 111-323), we find alphabetical index of persons (starting with Pierre again an elaborate discourse on more geographical d’Ailly, and ending with Martin Waldseemüler himself), history and mapmaking until the period of the extensive lists of notes and of the cited works, a discovery of America by Columbus and Vespucci. detailed index and some suggestions for further Lester writes about the influence of the Florentine reading make this the perfect work. The paperback humanists (who knows, for instance, that Giovanni edition even contains a short Author Q&A to enhance Boccacio besides being a poet was also a your reading enjoyment. Get this book and you’ll geographer?) and the journeys of Gil Eanes, a never regret it. Portuguese navigator who rounded Cape Bojador and the West African coast, Fra Mauro who drew a mappa mundi that shows the route around southern Africa to the Far East (which was opened by Bartholomeu Dias who reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1487). In the meantime Lester comes back to Ptolemy and Pierre Mattelaer describes the first printed version of his Geography (1477 — with maps). Further on we read about [email protected] Henricus Martellus’ world map (1489-90) and Martin Behaim’s globe, constructed on the eve of Colombus’ first voyage to the fourth part of the world (1492) 2. Cf. Look at Books IV in the last BIMCC Newsletter No 48 (Jan. 2014), p. 12-13, by Thomas Horst. Toby Lester does not refer to the Hessler’s and van Duzer’s book which was published in 2012 and was thus unknown to him in 2009. On the other hand, he refers to an earlier publication of Hessler’s: The Naming of America: Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 World Map and the Cosmographiae Introductio (2008). May 2014 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 55 LOOKS AT BOOKS II Japoniae Insulae. The mapping of Japan A historical introduction and cartobibliography of European Printed Maps of Japan before 1800 By Jason Hubbard Houten, HES & De Graaf, Utrecht Studies on the History of Cartography (Explokart) vol. XIV . 2012, 444 pp., Clothbound with full colour dust jacket, 32 x 24 cm, With over 374 full colour illustrations. In English with extensive summary in Japanese, price: EUR 185.00 (excl. VAT) ISBN 978-90-6194-351-4 Japoniae Insulae systematically map, he included an island based on the categorises and provides an overview of account of Marco Polo’s voyage of the all the European printed maps of Japan Far East. Polo’s account of Japan was published to 1800. The author has based on hearsay; he never visited the undertaken a review of the literature, islands. But news on Japan filtered conducted an exhaustive investigation in through to Europe through reports of the major libraries and private collections Mongol Kubilai Khan’s late thirteenth during his stay in the country between century designs on Japan. 1977 and 1980. He analysed these Another one hundred years would pass findings and then compiled information on before the first Europeans accidentally 125 maps of Japan. A starting point for discovered Japan but, in the interim, that his research was Tony Campbell’s did not stop a number of cartographers monograph ‘Japan : European printed from including it on their maps, imaginary maps to 1800’ (London : Map Collectors' as those depictions were. Over the next Circle,1967). The work includes an image, either a fifty years of the first European contacts with Japan digital scan or photograph of each map entry as well the resulting printed maps in the mid-sixteenth century as a number of detailed close-up images which help were strongly influenced by the portolan manuscript to identify various states. charts drawn by navigators who had visited Japan; The main parts are: European mapping of Japan; these frequently included not only empirical data but Indigenous mapmaking; Geographical non modern also information borrowed from Chinese, Korean and Western maps of Japan. Japanese material. Often the information was The ‘European Mapping of Japan’ section misunderstood and these derivative European maps identifies and classifies all known printed single-sheet can, at times appear bizarre to the modern eye. maps and charts concentrating on the Japanese The first relatively accurate depiction of the islands and first issued in Europe before the year Japanese islands was the map entitled Japoniae 1800. The author has identified and listed 125 main Insulae Descriptio added by Abraham Ortelius to the maps with their subsequent issues and states, 1595 edition of his world atlas Theatrum Orbis bringing the total to over 200 items. The first time Terrarum. Japan was mentioned on a European map was nearly By the mid-seventeenth century Japan closed its a century before any European had actually visited doors to the rest of the world and the European one of the islands. When, some time before 1459, Fra mapping of Japan could only progress again at the Mauro, a Benedictine monk, completed his world end of the eighteenth century, when the country opened up to the West. The present work deals mainly with European maps but indigenous cartography also played a part. Jason Hubbard collected his maps during an assignment in Japan between 1977 and 1980. It was Jonathan Potter, the famous London map dealer (and our sponsor!), who was his main source. The superb illustrations are each explained by a very precise commentary. The author should be congratulated for having written such a well documented and His Excellency Mr. Takashi Koezuka, Ambassador of Japan to The Netherlands, illustrated book. receiving the book on 19 September 2012 in The Hague’s Louwman museum, in the presence of several members of the Brussels Map Circle. From left to right: Jean Petin S. Hesselink (Director of Hes & De Graaf Publishers), H. Kok (IMCoS Chairman), [email protected] C. Klein, M. Van Den Broecke, F. Herbert, J. Hubbard (author of the book), P. van der Krogt (Explokart Project leader), P. van Gestel (Explokart Editor in chief). 6 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 May 2014 LOOKS AT BOOKS III La France – Géographie curieuse et insolite [A curious and impertinent geography of France] by Pierre Deslais Rennes: Éditions Ouest France, 2011. 220 pp., over 300 ill., mostly in colour, maps of all 101 French départements, plus numerous loosely inserted posters and maps of France (some folding). Hard cover, 25 x 22 cm. ISBN 978-2-7373-5455-7, EUR 25.00 In 1877, six years after the traumatic entertaining description of its defeat France suffered in the Franco- geography. But it is the presentation of Prussian war, a geography book was unusual and at times most surprising published in Paris that would give natural or historical phenomena that French school children and grown-ups makes this work stand out. Take, for a new vision of their homeland. It was example, the story of the village named the compelling story of Le Tour de la Y in the Somme, twinned with – you’ve France par deux enfants (The Tour of guessed it – the town with the longest France by two children) supposedly and quite unpronounceable name, in written by G. Bruno, a pseudonym for North Wales2. Then read about the Augustine Fouillée. André (14 years centre of France, officially established old) and Julien (7), two orphan boys, in Vesdun (Cher) but energetically fled by night from the German-occupied disputed by neighbouring communes as part of Lorraine to walk to Marseilles to well. Or consider the other controversy join their uncle. They then travelled over the geographical position of from region to region until their journey ended near western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc Orléans, having learnt about the human and also the (Haute-Savoie) which, at the time of its first ascent in industrial environment, local customs and, above all, 1786, was shown to be on the boundary between the natural beauty of the provinces they passed France and Italy on Italian maps, whilst French maps through. The aim of this textbook was to create a new, placed it just on the other side, making it the highest positive image of France and to give people back their mountain in Italy. self-confidence and pride in their country. Some posters and folding maps are loosely If I dwell a little on this subject it is for two reasons. inserted in the book, either in slip pockets or held in Firstly, this intriguing geography reader was the place by detachable glue drops between the pages. A subject of a fascinating lecture at the last ICHC in knowledge-based game with rewards is found at the Helsinki1 in which American researcher Catherine end of the book, and a 22-piece puzzle of the 22 Dunlop underlined the importance of geography and French regions is fixed on the inside back cover. cartography in France at that time. We will hear more Considering the hand-crafting involved in making about it in due course. Secondly, the author of the each volume, its price seems most reasonable. The book presented here has clearly been inspired by the front cover should not mislead you: this publication, Tour de la France, but he has like its companion history book liberally changed the scenario in that came out shortly the sense that the moralizing afterwards3, is not really meant and patriotic slant has given way for children. It will make pleasant to a fresh and sometimes reading for any adult in France amusing approach to presenting and may be a revelation for France’s lesser known those abroad who have an geographical, historical and, of inkling of French. As such it course, culinary aspects. As can might quite unintentionally be seen in the illustration, the promote the creation, at last, of a circuit covers much more ground French Map Circle – who knows. than did the two boys on their travels, touching all 96 continental Departments, plus five Departments overseas. This amazing book offers a double page for each of these, with a small modern Wulf Bodenstein topographical map and an [email protected] 1. The Woman who mapped the French Republic: Augustine Fouillée’s cartographic Tour de France, by Catherine Dunlop, Assistant Professor, Montana State University 2. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch 3. La France – Histoire curieuse et insolite (A curious and impertinent history of France) by Pierre Deslais and Rodolphe Ferron, ISBN 978-2-7373-5781-7, EUR 27.00 May 2014 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 77 LOOKS AT BOOKS IV Méridien, Méridienne - Textes, enjeux, débats et passions autour des méridiens de Paris et de Greenwich (1783–2000) [Meridians - Texts, debates and passions about the Paris and Greenwich meridians] by Anita McConnell and Jean Pierre Martin Cherbourg, Editions Isoète, 2013. ISBN 978-2-35776-059-2. HB, 168, 59 illustrations. EUR 24.00. This is not a novel of Mr Méridien Wilhelm Bessel and Carl Friedrich and Mrs Méridienne having a love affair Gauss developed better standards over a long period. No, the two authors and the achievements of the Russian are serious historians joining forces Arc, the Great Arc of India and also and resources to give a detailed the Arc of the 30th Meridian in South account of the Paris Méridienne and Africa under David Gill were the Greenwich Meridian, which became developed without French the prime meridian for astronomic and participation. time calculations. The text is written in Additionally, the discovery of a French. discrepancy of 1.84 m in the base In the Preface Suzanne Débarbat, measurement near Perpignan and the honorary astronomer at the Paris angle error made by Méchain further observatory, sketches the period from Jean-Félix damaged France’s reputation. Picard’s first meridian to the introduction of the metre The history of the International Meridian as a universal standard. Conference held in Washington in 1884 and its The book is divided in twelve chapters in implications for navigation are also dealt with in great chronological order with twelve articles focusing on detail. The book discusses how agreement was specific topics: geodetic instruments of the eighteenth negotiated and arrived at by the diplomats during century, the map of France by Colonel Berthoud, and after the conference for time to be measured cartography from Dieppe, the Struve Meridian Arc. from Greenwich and the metre accepted as the The story starts with the meridian line implant, universal measurement. emanating in 1666 from the new Observatory in Paris, The chapters on French cartography during the authorised by Louis XIV and overseen by Colbert who nineteenth century are (for me) of great interest as had created the Académie des sciences. L’abbé they describe the situation without the veils of secrecy Picard was the first to measure one degree of the associated with national pride and military sensitivity. Meridian, to try and calculate the size of the earth; he The chapters cover the influence of François Perrier published his results in 1671: La Mesure de la Terre. and his corrections to the French Meridian and the The Cassini family for four generations have extension to the Baleares and North Africa and his played a major role in French astronomy and intervention in the revision of the Arc in Peru, which especially in the quest for the figure of the earth. The brought French geodesy back to the centre of the result was the Carte de France amended and Association Internationale de Géodésie. structured on the basic triangulation from Dunkerque The authors develop a chapter on the Struve to Barcelona. The Franco-Anglaise rivalry had its ups Meridian. Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage and downs also in the eighteenth century, and the List in 2005 it stretches across ten countries from liaison of the two observatories and the triangulation Hammerfest in North Norway to Staro-Nekrasovka, carried out on both sides of the channel are studied in near Ismail on the Black Sea, a distance of 2 821 833 more detail than in other English or French books on metres. This arc was extended over the the subject. The 1787 map shows the triangulations Mediterranean Sea and down the 30th Meridian to on both sides to connect the two observatories. Buffelsfontein in the Republic of South Africa to During the French revolution the Méridienne was develop an overall length of 104°, and waits hopefully re-measured by Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delambre and to be inscribed on to the World Heritage List before Pierre Méchain, and it was Delambre who published too long. the famous Base du système métrique décimal. The In 2000 the ‘Méridienne verte’ project (The Green authors go into great detail about the process to Meridian) was devised to popularise the history of the construct the provisional metre and the final metre in meridian. It involved planting trees along the length platinum, now preserved in the Breteuil Pavillon. The of the Paris Meridian, and Mr Méridien and Mrs confusing situation and the many changes in the Méridienne enjoyed an enormous administration of French cartography was not helpful picnic on the Green Meridian from and by the middle of the 1850s France was no Dunkerque to Perpignan. longer the leader in this field. The German scientists Jan De Graeve Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, Friedrich [email protected] This review first appeared in the IMCoS Journal, No 136 Spring 2014. 8 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 May 2014 LOOKS AT BOOKS V Shorter bibliographical notes by Wulf Bodenstein Die Weltkarte des Nicolas de Fer aus dem Jahr 1694 [The world map by Nicolas de Fer, 1694] by Heinz Musall Brochure published by Hochschule Karlsruhe – Technik und Wirtschaft, Fakultät für Informationsmanagement und Medien, Karlsruhe, 2012. Vol. 8 in Series C, Ancient Maps, of the Karlsruher Geowissenschaftliche Schriften. 44 pp., ill. plus folding map reproduction, soft cover, 23.5 x 16.5 cm. ISBN 978-3-89063-607-8, EUR 19.00 To order : Hochschule Karlsruhe – Technik und Wirtschaft, Fakultät für Infor- mationsmanagement und Medien, Moltkestr. 30, D-76133 Karlsruhe. This four-sheet world map in two rear pocket) is the first and very rare edi- hemispheres is entitled Mappe-Monde, tion, with partial text borders, held in the ou Carte Generale de la Terre, divisée en Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe. deux Hemispheres suivant la Projection Following introductory chapters on the la plus commune [General map of the reformation of cartography around 1700 earth, divided into two hemispheres and on de Fer’s publishing firm, Musall according to the most common analyses the map under the aspects of projection]. It is of interest on account of map projection, scale, map content and de Fer’s attempt to update the image of decoration. The descriptive border texts, the world based on recent scientific ob- completed from a later edition, are trans- servations, and because the highly deco- lated from French into German in the An- rative borders present a telling panorama nex. A very useful work for further re- of the world as then known. The map de- search. scribed here and reproduced in 80% of the original size (folded and inserted in a The Charting of Maltese Waters, A Historical Account by William Soler and Albert Ganado San Gwann, Malta: BDL Publishing, 2013 – xx, 140 pp., 65 mostly colour ill., hard cover and dust jacket, 28 x 22 cm. ISBN 978-99957-33- 99-5, EUR 40.00 (32.00 for members of the Malta Map Society). To order: BDL Publishing, 13, Giorgio Preca Street, San Gwann SGN 3511, Malta Although placed in the centre of chartmakers, such as Dudley, the van the Mediterranean Sea, Malta was not Keulens, Goos, Bellin, as well as Le- prominently shown on early nautical vanto, Pimentel, Alagna, among oth- charts due to its relatively small size. ers. Historians have not so far shown Master Alexander Briarly of HMS much interest in researching the large Audacious is the author of six charts corpus of maritime representation of made during the French blockade in the Maltese Islands to study the de- 1798 which he dedicated to Lord Nel- velopment of navigation to and from son, an interesting story told in a Malta. This book is the first attempt at chapter on ‘The Napoleonic Connec- doing so: it recounts the history of the tion’. The last chapter is devoted charting of Maltese waters from the mainly to British nautical surveys from late fifteenth to the nineteenth cen- 1813 on, and the book closes with two tury. appendices with verbatim quotes from After an introductory review of the two printed portolans, followed by a antique art of navigation the subjet is bibliography and an index. addressed chronologically in the fol- This is another well researched con- lowing seven Chapters. The first tribution to Malta’s cartographic his- charts of Malta drawn in manuscript form are by tory, admirably complementing previous works of ref- Buondelmonti (ca. 1470) and Pīrī Re’īs (ca. 1520), erence directed and published by Albert Ganado. Pro- and this technique remained in use well into the late duced to the standard of excellence we have come to 18th century, illustrated with ms. charts by eleven expect from works by Ganado, this book will be a other mapmakers. Willem Barents contributed the first valuable addition to the library of all those with an printed nautical chart of the region in 1595, to be fol- interest in the history of the Mediterranean and its lowed by those of illustrious but also less well-known central archipelago, Malta. May 2014 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 99 Rund um die Globen – In memoriam Rudolf Schmidt [Around the globe - In commemoration of Rudolf Schmidt] edited by Jan Mokre Illustrated brochure published by Johanna Rachinger, Director General of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. 36 pp., ill. Contact Generaldirektion der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Josefsplatz 1, A-1015 Wien, [email protected] Prof. Rudolf Schmidt, distinguished There are three further articles in globe historian and collector, English by Elly Dekker (Thoughts on president of the International Coronelli Blaeu’s 34 cm celestial globe of Society for the Study of Globes from 1603), Marica Milanesi (Gores of 1978 to 2000, died in September Coronelli’s globes in the Rudolf 2013. A Festschrift had been Schmidt collection), and Peter van der prepared for his 90th birthday on 23 Krogt (The terrestrial globe of Gemma January 2014, but this became a Frisius [c. 1537]). Paul Kunitzsch posthumus presentation at a discusses Der arabische reception in the Palais Mollard in Himmelsglobus in der Sammlung Vienna, home of the Globe Museum. Rudolf Schmidt, and Wolfram Dolz Six articles by Jan Mokre, Johannes describes Das Planetarium von John Dörflinger, Heide Wohlschläger, Peter Handsford, um 1780. Allmayer-Beck, Walter Wiesinger and The text is supplemented by an Friedrich Närr pay homage to Rudolf impressive bibliography of his Schmidt’s life as a collector of globes publications (50 titles) and a listing of and an industrial manager, and to the 47 exhibitions which he either co- role he played in the Österreichische curated or to which he lent globes, Nationalbibliothek and the Coronelli Society. instruments and reference books from his collection. 10 BIMCC Newsletter No 49 May 2014