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Oxbow Books are delighted to announce the publication of the British Historic Towns Atlas Volume IV: Windsor and Eton. For the first time, new research by historians, archaeologists and cartographers has been brought together to compile this unique and original portfolio – a definitive account in maps and words of the historic royal towns of Windsor and Eton.
Want to find out more? Click on the jacket below or read Cartographic Editor Giles Darkes' post on the process of preparing the maps for the Windsor and Eton Atlas by clicking here.
The Windsor and Eton Atlas includes a substantial introduction to the history of these distinctive towns charting their development over eight centuries. All the buildings, historic sites and streets named on the maps are comprehensively documented in a detailed gazetteer.
The value of the atlas is enhanced by the inclusion of numerous colour illustrations, including early maps and views of the towns, many of them previously unknown.
Presented as a large-format, high-quality A3 folder the atlas includes maps and illustrations printed at A2 allowing clear details to be seen.
There are high-quality and original maps of the two towns at key periods between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries.

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The very first International Geographical Conference (1871) took place in Antwerp, and the people behind this initiative were also the founding fathers of what became known as the Royal Antwerp Geographical Society ('Koninklijk Aardrijkskundig Genootschap van Antwerpen' or 'KAGA').
The first ever Congrès international des Sciences géographiques, cosmographiques et commerciales took place in Antwerp in 1871. Although it was a local initiative, it was a model for later conferences in terms of organization, structure and choice of themes.
One of the key figures in the Organizing Committee of the conference was City Archivist Pieter Génard. Five years after the conference, he also played an important role in the foundation of the Antwerp Geographical Society and became its first secretary. Thanks to Génard not only the archives of the conference, but also some crucial records from the first decades of the Society ended up in the Antwerp City Archives (FelixArchief). These records have now been properly described in the online catalogue and made available for research.
From 1876 until the 1970s the Royal Antwerp Geographical Society (KAGA) invited explorers, geographers and other scientists to give lectures and presentations on their discovery and view of the world. Some famous names from its history are Adrien de Gerlache, Roald Amundsen, Marshall Lyautey, Ernest Shackleton and Paul Otlet.
Over time, however, the KAGA's activities and organisation dwindled, causing in the mid 1990s the Antwerp University Library to adopt KAGA library, which consisted of a collection of journals, maps, atlases, and books, including some valuable old prints. Finally, when the society ceased its regular activities some years ago, the University Library also obtained its archives, which were registered in a specially developed archival module of the library's catalogue system (2012-2014).
The completion of this project now allows to paint a better picture of the organization’s history, its numerous activities and fascinating collection of books, maps, documents and objects. In July 2015 the full archival catalogue will be made openly accessible. A web exposition featuring the most prominent figures and objects of the first conference (1871) and the society will be launched under the title: Geographical Initiatives in Antwerp: the Tale of the Royal Geographical Society of Antwerp (1871-1970). This co-operation between the University Library and the FelixArchief thus aims not only to present the glorious past of this society, but also to make it available for current research and study.

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The Washington Map Society is pleased to announce that David Fedman, a PhD. candidate in history at Stanford University, has been selected as the winner of the 2014 Ristow Prize in the history of cartography. His paper, entitled 'Mapping Armageddon The Cartography of Ruin in Occupied Japan' will appear in a forthcoming issue of The Portolan. Anouk Vermeulen, a PhD. candidate in the School of Classics at St. Andrews University in Scotland, received Honorable Mention for her essay 'Landscapes in Stone and Bronze: A New Interpretatin of Four Monumental Formae'.
The 2015 competition for the Ristow Prize is now open for applicants. Full- or part-time undergraduate, graduate, or first-year postgraduate students attending any accredited college or university worldwide are eligible to submit papers. Submissions are due 1 June 2015, and should be sent to Dr. Evelyn Edson, 268 Springtree Lane, Scottsville, VA 24590, U.S.A.
Visit the Washington Map Society home page: http://www.washmapsociety.org, and click on 'Ristow Prize' or send inquiries to eedson@pvcc.edu.

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Columbus's contemporary, Oviedo, credited the man for being the 'first discoverer' of the Americas; Columbus had 'found' 'new' lands, cities, and peoples (Historia general de las Indias [Seville: Cromberger, 1535], fol. 1v). Las Casas later linked this attribution to his own criticism that Columbus 'had made taxpayers of the Indians there' (Brevíssima relación [Seville: Trugillo, 1552], fol. 192r). The verbs associated with Columbus's conduct evolved away from ones that either celebrated or affirmed Spanish possession of the New World to include ones like destroyed, devastated, exterminated, and ruined in the subsequent tomes authored by William Robertson, Abbé Raynal, and Washington Irving. By the twentieth century, important works by Tzvetan Todorov and José Rabasa — to name just two of deep field of scholars — prefer 'invention' rather than 'discovery', 'the other' rather than 'the savage', and so on. As this example demonstrates scholars writing in any period reconsider past historical events according to the paradigms of the age; the approach to and conclusions drawn from research into the history of discovery and exploration vary remarkably depending upon the timeframe and the socio-cultural perspective in which that scholarship is conducted.
Is contemporary scholarship moving away from an establishment of the facts concerning the European exploration of the world—how they traveled, where, and when, and what they encountered — and toward an interest in the variety of narratives and perspectives afforded by an entire world that at one point or another discovered other parts of itself? How do we navigate the realities and dystopias, ethnocentricities and lack of understandings, inherent to the act of discovery conducted by men such as Columbus upon whose narratives and the history books they have engendered we rely for our own research? Do we answer these specific challenges by identifying and asserting new voices as well as counter-perspectives? What new consciousness might we possess today that requires us to revisit past scholarship so that we can reap new knowledge from these historical contexts? And, finally, what is the state of our discipline today; how and why does it remain relevant?
Essays and position papers are invited for a special series devoted to reflecting upon the scholarship of discovery and exploration. Early- and late-career scholars, graduate students, collectors as well as members of our association are encouraged to prepare article - length contributions (4000-6000 words) that will be peer reviewed about the state of our discipline. Specific topics might also include examples of new directions, epistemological and theoretical approaches, and trends in scholarship. Proposals for innovative ways of answering this Call for Papers are also welcome.
Please send inquiries, proposals, or completed manuscripts to the editor of Terrae Incognitae, Lauren Beck (lbeck@mta.ca). Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis for inclusion in the next five issues of Terrae Incognitae.

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At the fourth session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management at the UN Headquarters in New York on 6 - 8 August 2014, the International Cartographic Association (ICA) Initiative on an International Map Year 2015/16 was endorsed.
The resolution says: The committee endorse the International Map Year 2015-2016 as proposed by the International Cartographic Association as a valuable means to promote the importance of maps and Geoinformation.
URL: http://internationalmapyear.org/ and
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/docs/28th-gegn-docs/WP/WP76_fairbairn2_template-BR-2.pdf

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Newsletter No 51 cover
Newsletter No 51

Contents

  • Pictures at an Exhibition
    • Marshal Marmont's campaign maps and plans
    • Ancient Maps of Europe: a journey
  • Places with maps
    • The Bartolomé March collection of portolans, Palma de Mallorca
  • Looks at books
    • German war maps of Switzerland, a vademecum
    • Rügen Island on old maps. Four hundred years of history of cartography
    • Shorter bibliographical notes
  • History and Cartography
    • Ancient maps and modern politics
    • My Collection – Printed Maps of Devon
  • BIMCC news
    • How I got into cartography: Petra Svatek
    • Cartography in Times of War and Peace - ICA Symposium report
    • Mapping in times of war - Brussels Map Circle conference report
    • Brussels Map Circle Programme for 2015
  • International news
  • Events calendar
  • Exhibitions calendar
  • Auction calendar

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I would like to inform you that my professor here in Portugal, Henrique Leitão, which I have first met in Sint-Niklaas and who is a very good mentor to me, has won some days ago the famous Fernando-Pessoa-Prize, the most prestigious prize for culture in Portugal (*)(**).
Together with Henrique I have organized an international workshop in the Portuguese National Library about the relationship between Germany and Portugal during the time of the Renaissance (not related to map history) (***). I am now looking to find money to publish the proceedings of this conference in a German publishing house.
[...]
With best wishes from Portugal,
Thomas Horst

(*) http://algarve24.pt/en/news-culture/henrique-leitao-pessoa-prize/2014-12-12
(**) http://ishm.elte.hu/
(***) http://www.bnportugal.pt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=977%3Aworkshop-internacional-renaissance-craftsmen-and-humanistic-scholars-european-circulation-of-knowledge-between-portugal-and-germany-2021-nov&catid=164%3A2014&Itemid=998&lang=pt

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