Brussels International
Map Collectors' Circle
Companion book to an Exhibition, by Curator Paulo C.
Miceli.
São Paulo, Brazil : Instituto Cultural Banco
Santos, 2002.
ISBN 85-89025-01-2. 344 pages, 200 colour ill. of which
53 double pages, plus 31 decorative ill. in the text.
Hard cover, dust jacket, 39 x 32 cm. Bilingual text in
Portuguese and English.
BRL 125.00 (ca. EUR 40.00), shipping USD 90.00.
Siciliano Library, São Paulo,
Tel +55 11 3649 4747, http://www.siciliano.com.br
This is the biggest and most lavishly illustrated companion book to an exhibition I have ever come across. Having just put away the Cassini pocket-book (see separate article, 315 g) it takes two strong arms to handle this surprising Treasure of Maps (over 4 kg). It was published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by the Cultural Institute of the Banco Santos (26 May - 27 October 2002) which put on display the core of the private collection of the Bank's Chairman, Edemar Cid Ferreira. In one of the introductory texts the scene is admirably set:
The remarkable Cid Collection gathers in an all-encompassing and demonstrative fashion the cartographic output of half a millennium. If we examine this collection closely, we will see that practically all the famous names in geography and cartography, whether Italian, Flemish, Dutch, French, English or German are represented [...], having contributed with tremendous cartographic monuments that [...] rendered a relevant and inestimable service to Brazilian culture.(Rear-Admiral Dr h.c. Max Justo Guedes).
The four main chapters of the book are distinguished by different colours that serve as background to the pages with their texts and images. The blue chapter is devoted to the Images of the World, wherein we find some portolans (Roussin, Oliva and others), Schedel's and Waldseemüller's world maps (1535, 1541), and early maps of the Americas by Münster, Thevet, Ortelius, Hondius. There is also an interesting discourse on the island of Brazil shown in some medieval and renaissance maps to the west of Ireland, with an etymological explanation which decidedly disconnects it from its South-American homonym. The chapter in red is on Art and Technique where we find a good run of classical world maps again; but the accent here is on tools from the Cartographer's Workshop, with many superb photographs of quadrants, sextants, magnetic compasses, telescopes, globes, armillary spheres, and ship's models including Nelson's Victoria of Trafalgar fame.
The green chapter, entitled European Cartography and Representation of the World, provides another selection of maps of the world and of the two Americas, from Gemma Frisius to Crepy (1767), with a few uncommon specimens. Finally, in the mauve chapter, Brazil on Maps, we focus in on the South American continent, showing regional maps as well as some early town views. As a bonus we find at the end the first-class reproductions of wall-maps of the world by Samuel Dunn (1787) and by Jean Janvier (1754), and those of the four continents by the latter, with a double page showing, in readable detail, some selected enlargements of decorative vignettes with their French text.
Philip Curtis, formerly of Christies, now running The Map House in London, map-historians Paul Cohen (New York) and Isa Adonias (Rio de Janeiro), and Jonathan Potter (London), the well-known author and map dealer, have contributed with historical introductions and certainly lent a hand in preparing this unique exhibition. You can see it again, if you happen to be in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro until 2 March [2003], from where it moves to Belo Horizonte. The price is, by our standards, very low for such a high-quality product, but the cost of shipping is really out of proportion, unfortunately.
Admittedly, the bibliography with only twelve entries is somewhat disappointing, as is the lack of an index. But then, on reflection, it becomes clear that the vocation of this book was not so much to be a scientific contribution to the history of cartography, nor a catalogue in formal terms, but rather a distinguished acknowledgement and a historical record of an outstanding collection of cartographical treasures which provide the setting for a fresh look at the representation of Brazil on maps across five centuries. The explanatory texts are beyond reproach, and the colour reproductions simply outstanding. And it shows on every page that this volume was made with loving care and justified pride.
by Wulf Bodenstein