The Brussels Map Circle

Home → News

News

This book, published in both French and Dutch, visualises the history of Belgium with the help of one hundred remarkable old maps. From Ortelius' map of the Netherlands in Roman times to the official map of the linguistic borders of 1964, they all shed unique light on the past. They reveal the changes that have taken place over the centuries and the elements that have escaped the influence of time.
Among the authors, we find Philippe De Maeyer, Michèle Galand, Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, Guy Vanthemsche, Karen De Coene, Marguerite Sylvestre, Peter Van der Krogt some of them are Members of the Brussels Map Circle.
407 pages, 350 ⨯ 290 mm, published on 2 November 2021, EAN 9782390251736 (fr), 9789401476126 (nl), Publishers: Racine (fr), Lannoo (nl)
The links below offer the possibility to leaf through several pages of the book:

Posted on

The History of Cartography series brings together cutting-edge research and a colourful collection of stories and histories told through maps. As a research, editorial and publishing venture, the project is drawing international attention to the history of maps and mapping. It treats all maps — from prehistory through the twentieth century — as cultural, technical and intellectual artifacts.
The final volume — Volume 5, Cartography in the Nineteenth Century — will soon be completed thanks to USD 350 000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities recently awarded to the project.
The project, published by The University of Chicago Press, comprises an interpretive encyclopedia of 409 entries written by 193 contributors. Volumes 1 through 4, as well as 6, have been completed and now the project team is focused on the final tome. The full series will eventually be made available in both print and digital forms.
Source: https://news.wisc.edu/40-year-map-project-history-of-cartography-draws-to-a-close/

Posted on

A world map drawn by the famous Ottoman admiral, cartographer and sailor Piri Reis in 1513 has been put on display once again at Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace after a long break. The map on display is among the most important and interesting artifacts that have survived from the age of discoveries. The visitors’ interest in the exhibition is reported to be quite intense.
Source: Hürriyet Daily News website, https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/piri-reis-world-map-on-display-at-topkapi-palace-169485

Posted on

In 2020, the worldwide pandemic forced a late cancellation of the symposium. As an alternative, authors of accepted presentations were encouraged to submit full papers on their work for publication in an open access proceedings volume, which can be found here: https://www.proc-int-cartogr-assoc.net/3/. The volume also contains a preface by commission chair Imre Demhardt, with the full story on the course the symposium took from spring 2020 to the summer of 2021.

Posted on

The Symposium offered the opportunity to meet again in person, at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), to participate in a four-day programme of lectures by talented speakers, and special visits to museums and map rooms.
It was a great challenge to organise this international conference in these complicated times; it was taken up by an enthusiastic organising committee which concocted an entertaining programme mainly focused on Belgium.
The dedicated web site of the 38th IMCoS International Symposium is still accessible here. Do not miss the gallery.
For the record, here are the links to the lectures broadcast: The 39th Symposium is already on track. The University of Texas will welcome us in 2022.
[Updated on 30 October 2021]

Posted on

As part of the SEPAC organisation’s 2021 joint issue of stamps on the theme of Historical Maps, POST Philately is depicting the oldest, precise map of the city of Luxembourg drawn by Jacob van Deventer in the sixteenth century. He created this important document shortly after 1559 on the orders of King Philip II of Spain.

Read more.

Posted on

Terrae Incognitae, the Journal of the Society for the History of Discoveries, aims to examine the history and impact of geographic exploration and cross-cultural interaction around the globe prior to the modern era. Some articles are freely available.
Volume 53, 2021 has been recently issued.
It contains a fascinating article, by Paolo Chiesa, entitled Marckalada: The First Mention of America in the Mediterranean Area (c. 1340), examines discussions about Markland, a geographic region scholars today consider to be part of the Atlantic coast of America. As the title of the article indicates, Chiesa suggests that geographic knowledge about Markland circulated in the Mediterranean region during the first half of the fourteenth century, well before the time of Columbus.
Link to the full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00822884.2021.1943792

Posted on

Contents

  • Looks at Books
    • La Carte d’Avignon : De la Méditerranée à la Baltique 1190 – 1490 [The Avignon Chart: From the Mediterranean to the Baltic 1190 – 1490] by Jacques Mille (Nicola Boothby)
    • Atlas wilde bomen en struiken - Landschappelijk groen erfgoed in de provincies van Nederland en Vlaanderen [Atlas of Wild Trees and Shrubs – Scenic Green Heritage in the Provinces of the Netherlands and Flanders]
    • Catalan Maps and Jewish Books: The Intellectual Profile of Elisha ben Abraham Cresques (1325-1387)
  • History and Cartography
    • What Dick Pflederer’s Census tells us about portolan charts
    • Agnese atlas owned by Philip II emerges in Spain!
  • The Brussels Map Circle
    • The 38th IMCoS International Symposium Programme
    • Three Milleniums of Measurement of Earth

Posted on

The proceedings of the postponed symposium Mapping the Ottoman Realm: Travelers, Cartographers and Archaeologists (which was due to take place in Istanbul in April 2020 before the pandemic intervened), have been published in an open access volume which can be found here. The volume also contains a preface by the commission chair Imre Demhardt, with the full story on the course the symposium took from spring 2020 to the summer of 2021.
The proceedings contain a paper by Wouter Bracke, President of the Brussels Map Circle, entitled From the Atlas de l’Europe by Philippe Vandermaelen (1828–1833) to the Weiss Map by Thomas Best Jervis (1854).

Posted on