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3 January 2010

Obituary - Dr Tomasz Niewodniczański (1933 – 2010)

It is with deep sadness and regret that I learnt of the death on 3 January in Bitburg (Germany) after a long illness of my dear friend of over 20 years' standing Dr Tomasz Niewodniczański, or 'Dr Niewo' as he was affectionately known.

A nuclear physicist, brewer and businessman, he was above all a collector who ammassed what was probably Europe's largest private collection of maps, atlases and globes, as well as historical documents.

He was born in the city of Wilno in pre-war Poland, once the ancient capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, now Vilnius, capital of modern Lithuania.

His activity as a collector began in earnest after he moved to Bitburg in 1973 where he lived until his death. There he created around his outstanding collection a de facto scientific research centre for the history of cartography, attracting scholars from across the world, including some of international renown. He is perhaps best remembered for a series of exhibitions spanning more than a decade and interweaving the history and cartography of Central and Eastern Europe (Imago Germaniae 1996, Deutschland und die Eifel in Karten 1998, Pommern und Stettin auf damaligen Karten 1998, Rhenus Superior et Germania 2000, Imago Silesiae 2002, Imago Poloniae 2002, Imago Lituaniae 2003, Portolane und Seekarten 2003, Dantiscum Emporium 2004, Imago Regio – Luxemburg und die Grossregion 2007, to name the more important ones).

A willing lender to public institutions across Europe, he was an exceptionally generous benefactor of public collections in Poland, in particular the University Library in Szczecin, the Ossolinski Institute (Ossolineum) in Wroclaw and most recently the Royal Castle in Warsaw (see BIMCC Newsletter No 35). He worked in close cooperation with researchers and academics, including some leading historical cartographers, with whom he produced scholarly articles and publications such as two volumes of the Cartographica Rarissima series in 1992 and 1995. With the assistance of the Polish specialists who came to work in his archives, he also published important autograph manuscripts of literary figures such as Adam Mickiewicz, Poland's national poet.

Dr Tomasz Niewodniczański and his wife - 1 October 2005 - Bitburg (350 K)

His love of maps and manuscripts aside, he was tireless in his pursuit of Polish-German reconciliation, and this was the underlying purpose of many of his exhibitions. His final and most challenging venture into which he put much time and effort despite his illness, Imago Ukrainae, would have been the first Ukrainian map exhibition of its kind. Designed to place Polish-Ukrainian relations in historical perspective and thus on a better footing, it was carefully prepared but has yet to see the light of day for technical reasons.

Indeed he was not motivated by considerations of investment or gain but saw his collection primarily as a political instrument to be used to overcome hostility and misunderstanding between nations. Sadly, though, his foray into the diplomatic sphere in recent years and involvement in negotiations over the fate of the manuscripts from the Prussian State Library held in Poland since the war, the so-called 'Berlinka', was not crowned with success. The recipient of several distinguished awards from the Polish, German and Lithuanian Governments, his services to cartography were recognised and honoured in 2006 when he received the Helen Wallis Award from IMCoS.

Far from being a secretive private collector, he loved publicity, gave frequent interviews to the press and appeared on television. His extensive holdings were open to all, not just to scholars, for consultation and research, and visitors from across the world invariably received a warm welcome. The BIMCC, for instance, was able to organise a truly memorable excursion to Bitburg in 2005 (see BIMCC Newsletter No 24).

A man of remarkable stature in both senses, unique amongst collectors, he will be sorely missed by many of us, but his memory will live on. As will his equally unique collection, both in Warsaw, where his Polonica has found a new and fitting home (see BIMCC Newsletter No 35), and in Bitburg where the atlases, globes and other maps remain under the able stewardship of his wife Marie-Luise who was the true initiator of his collection. For it was she, all those years ago, who gave her husband his very first map: a plan of Damascus from Braun and Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis Terrarum.

By Peter Galezowski

Saturday 5 December 2009

BIMCC Conference: Exploring Heaven and Earth

Audience

For the first time since the famed Europalia event of 2007, the BIMCC Annual Conference was hosted by the Royal Library of Belgium .

As an introduction and welcome, Wouter Bracke, Head of the Map Room at the Royal Library and professor of Latin and palaeography at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, brought us a message from the Director General of the Library.

Eric Leenders, President

In this letter, Prof. Dr. Lefèvre referred to the latest projects the Library has been undertaking in the domain of cartography (e.g. the publication of the Ferraris map of the Austrian Netherlands and the geo-referencing of ancient maps, in cooperation with the National Geographic Institute), thus confirming the interest of the institution in the subject matter.

Of course, the BIMCC is very pleased with these initiatives of the Library and our president, Eric Leenders, expressed our thanks and launched the morning session.

Tintin au Pole Nord

Wouter Bracke

Wouter Bracke, as first speaker of the day, spoke about a man who became a national hero in Belgium and lives in our collective memory as a kind of vague mixture of those other national heroes: Tintin, Mercator and even Frank De Winne … Indeed, Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery (1866-1934), gentleman-explorer, is especially famous because of the first hibernation on Antarctica (1897-1899). Less known are the three arctic expeditions de Gerlache directed at the request of the Duke of Orléans in 1905, 1907 and 1909 respectively. In 1941 de Gerlache’s daughter Marie-Louise, employee of the Royal Library of Belgium, donated a small collection of about 100 maps from the personal archives of Adrien de Gerlache. Most of them wer used by de Gerlache during his voyages. More than 20 maps are related to the expeditions in the Northern Waters. Some of them show drawings, made by de Gerlache himself, of the various itineraries he followed. Though few references to maps were made in the accounts of the trips, it is clear that the Duke – present himself on the ship, albeit less drawn by a scientific urge to explore than by a desire to hunt – didn’t think much of the mainly Russian maps of the area. Those who want to see some maps and pictures of these trips should visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/royal_library_belgium. Have a cup of mulled wine at hand!

Indiana Jones and the vanished archives

Imre Demhardt

The next speaker, Imre Demhardt, from the University of Texas at Arlington, had chosen an equally extraordinary man for his lecture: Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), who already in his lifetime was hailed as 'the greatest travelling scientist who ever lived' (Charles Darwin). Professor Demhardt gave an account of Humboldt’s extraordinary life, wide-ranging achievements and of course landmarks maps. The Prussian nobleman’s perception-changing voyage through Latin America in 1799-1804 and his decades of meticulous analysis of observations constituted nothing less than a benchmark standard for the 'second age of discovery' he inaugurated. His cartographic contributions to a new image of the Americas are not restricted to his own publications, like the Atlas géographique et physique du Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne (Paris: Schoell, 1811). As important was Humboldt’s influence on innovative cartographers such as Heinrich Berghaus and his Physikalischer Atlas (2 vols.; Gotha: J. Perthes, 1837-51) which included cartographic interpretations of the great traveller’s ground-breaking concepts on vegetation, geography, and meteorology. This may all sound very serious , but those who were present were treated to a story involving electric eels, Napoleon, guano, Cuban cigars, penguins, Orinoco exploring, a fortune of eight million euro spent and finally… a fire that destroyed nearly all 820 diaries of von Humboldt’s voyages. Definitely must read that biography!

Gulliver’s Travels???

Andreas Christoph

Many travelogues – more or less authentic – were published in the second half of the eighteenth century, especially about Africa. In this regard, maps were often still antiquated, fanciful and criss-crossed with 'terra incognita'. Furthermore, translation, re-translation, reviews and re-editions promoted the misrepresentation of facts regarding Africa. In 1800 Zacharias Taurinius published his travelogue, Beschreibung einiger See- und Landreisen; he also published under two aliases, Christian Friedrich Damberger and Joseph Schrödter. These editions came under scrutiny because they were cases of blatant plagiarism. The last speaker of the morning, Andreas Christoph, from Jena University, analyzed these travelogues, illustrated with maps and copperplates, published in German, French and English in the years after 1800. The tissue of lies behind the purportedly distinct travelogues by Taurinius, Damberger and Schrödter was revealed by analysis of critical reviews in domestic and foreign journals.

All that exploring had made us hungry and thirsty, so we eagerly set out to explore the surroundings of the Royal Library, where we found a safe harbour in the roof-top restaurant of the Museum of Musical Instruments. Food and wine were provided and conversation became rather animated. It goes to show that, once again, the BIMCC also wants to promote the convivial aspects of such gatherings, as well as the scientific.

Star Wars

Rob van Gent

Rob H. van Gent, from Utrecht University, brought us the fascinating story of the discovery of the skies. In his lecture, Celestial Cartography in the Low Countries, he presented a summary of the carto-bibliography he is working on and a chronological overview of the large volume of cartographical material depicting the celestial sphere and the heavenly bodies published in the Low Countries between the early sixteenth century and the middle of the nineteenth century. This material, much of which is little known, includes celestial maps, celestial globes, lunar maps, eclipse maps, maps depicting comet paths and other celestial phenomena. We learned that during his chosen period the celestial globes made in the Low Countries were the best available. It all started with Peter Apianus and Gemma Frisius (1533 Cosmographia). A major step was made in Denmark by Tycho Brahe who re-measured the stars and produced the first 'star atlas'. Of course, being situated in such a northern part of the planet made it impossible to see the more southern constellations. These remained a rather empty spot on the globes and maps until Plancius (1552-1622; famous VOC cartographer) started mapping them. From then on, this void was filled. And sometimes in a truly splendid, artistic way, like Cellarius did. I should mention here that Rob van Gent wrote the introduction to the re-edition of Cellarius’ Harmonia Macrocosmica and you can see some images in it on this website: http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/cellarius/cellarius.htm

Heart of Darkness

Wulf Bodenstein

Wulf Bodenstein, our honorary president, who on a voluntary basis looks after the collection of ancient maps in the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, of course had chosen a subject related to the mapping of the Dark Continent. In 1578 the Portuguese merchant Duarte Lopes arrived in what is now Angola where he stayed for six years, travelling and trading in certain parts of Angola and the Congo. In 1584, the Congolese King Alvaro I, who had become a Christian, sent him back to Europe with the task of obtaining missionary support from Philip II and Pope Sixtus V, both of whom, however, politely declined. It was in Rome that Lopes met Filippo Pigafetta, a military officer, geographer and envoy of the Pope. The latter wrote down, in Italian, Lopes’ description of his stay in Africa and, in 1591, had it published in Rome under the title Relatione del Reame di Congo et delle circonvicine Contrade (A Report on the Kingdom of Congo and the surrounding Countries). This represents a milestone in the history of the exploration of Africa and was translated into Dutch, English, German and Latin in the following seven years. The two maps that are contained in this book, one of the Congo and another of Africa (minus its western part), have not received much attention so far. Wulf presented the first results of his ongoing research into the origin, design and contents of these maps and the influence they had on the later mapping of Africa. It is clear that both maps raise a lot of questions. For instance: the great lakes had thus far always been represented in the Ptolemaic way (this is side by side) but here they are shown correctly in a north-south position! We hope we will soon read more about these issues in an article!

And so ended our exploration of our planet and the universe: in the Royal Library, with a glass of wine at hand and a head full of dreams of distant shores, yet to be discovered and, most important of all: shown on the map!

By Caroline De Candt

September 2009

Newsletter No 35 issued.

More details.

September 2009

Formatting Europe - Mapping a Continent - Proceedings of the 6th International BIMCC Conference issued.

More details.

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