By Gerhard Kraack and Jens Ahlers. Husum : Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, 2003. 384 pp with 109 b/w and 17 colour illustrations, 30 x 22 cm (carton binding) ; ISBN 3-89876-101-0 To order: Landeszentralbibliothek Schleswig-Holstein, Waitzstrasse 5, D-24937 Flensburg (Germany), Tel +49-(0)461 860 62 00, Fax +49 (0)461 860 62 20, e-mail lzb.flensburg@t-online.de
The two previous volumes published in the series of carto-bibliographies by the Central Library of the Land of Schleswig-Holstein dealt with a composite atlas of ca 1715 (Volume 1) and the seven-volume map collection of the Jordt family, of ca 1795 (Volume 2) (1). The present and final volume in this series, Volume 3, contains three distinct catalogues of cartographic material published before 1900: the first describes 88 single maps, the second documents the remaining 36 atlases held in their collection (the other two having been catalogued in Vols. 1 and 2), and the third catalogue, by far the most voluminous and undoubtedly the most revealing of the three, is a repertoire of over 4 000 maps, town plans and views contained in 593 books.
Before we take a closer look at the contents of each of these catalogues, two general remarks might be in place. Firstly, the very close political and cultural relationship that bound Schleswig and Holstein to the Kingdom of Denmark until the German-Danish war in 1864 is obviously reflected in the composition of the corpus of maps and books. Two thirds of the single maps are of Danish origin, and about one third of all books deals with Danish or Schleswig-Holstein's topography and history. Here we come across many less-known map makers whose work deserves our interest and study. Secondly, the major part of the collection stemming from the Library of the Old College — Altes Gymnasium — in Flensburg, where Greek and Latin were taught, it is not surprising to find a large proportion of historical maps and works of antiquity in the catalogue. This provides an excellent opportunity to become familiar with historical maps and atlases, a category not generally held in high esteem by map collectors. But apart from this somewhat special orientation there is a wealth of other cartographic material described and illustrated that should appeal to the mapping community as a whole.
The outstanding item among the single maps certainly is
the 4-sheet map of Iceland of 1844 by the Icelandic
cartographer B. Gunnlaugsson, with which he is said to
have obtained a gold medal in Paris in 1875. As this
happened 31 years after its conception, the map must have
been a major achievement for its time. There are also two
19th century re-issues of the Peutinger
Tables
. Of note are a 16-sheet map of the United
States by J.C. Smith (ca 1852, size if joined ca 146 x
188 cm), and a 25-sheet map of Germany and surrounding
countries by Adolf Stieler (1829, size 150 x 172 cm if
joined). Nine of these maps are reproduced in black and
white, four in colour.
The atlas catalogue contains descriptions of two
18th century and 32 19th century
atlases, as well as of two 20th century
facsimiles (Ortelius' TOT in extract, and Mercator's 1595
atlas). The oldest work is a composite atlas containing
71 maps by Sandrart, Seutter, Bodenehr, Lotter and
(mostly) Homann and Heirs, dating from 1684 to 1780.
Atlases of the following century are by Andree, Diercke,
Kiepert, Putzger, Sohr-Berghaus, Spruner, Stieler and a
few lesser-known publishers. One half of the items (18)
are historical atlases, the others belonging to the
category of general geography, with a few thematic
atlases on meteorology, religions and colonies. But the
most interesting 19th century publication is
probably Vandermaelen's Atlas Universel
in 6
volumes (Brussels, 1827) containing 376 maps on the
uniform scale of 1:1 641 836. Apart from this latter
item, each of the entries is given a complete listing of
all maps contained in the given edition — a welcome
complement to Espenhorst's Petermann's Planet. Eight
black-and-white and three colour reproductions illustrate
this section.
The following 228 pages are on books with maps. In
addition to 90 black-and-white map reproductions, of
which many are double-page, there are ten in colour. As
one might expect, the collection represents a good
cross-section of European publications from the first
half of the 16th century on. The oldest book
is a Latin commentary on Julius Caesar's wars, published
in Basle by Thomas Wolff in 1531, with seven maps. Among
the 16th century works I found of particular
interest are the town plans of Rome, by Bartholomaeus
Marlianus (dated Basle 1551), and of Constantinople
(published in Basle by H. Froben[ius] and N. Episcopius,
1552). Other classical works are those of Apian,
Clüver, Magini, Münster, three editions of
Olearius's travels to Moscow and Persia, Pomponius Mela,
Pontanus (with interesting map variants by Janssonius),
Solinus, Strabo, to cite only these. Olaus Magnus's 1572
edition of the Historia de gentium septentrionalium
… contains an intriguing wood-cut map of
Scandinavia, signed THW 1567
, apparently based on
his famous 9-sheet Carta Marina of 1539,
famous for its often copied sea monsters. All of the just
mentioned books and maps (except Apian) have at least one
illustration.
Some of the books comprise such an important map content that one might be tempted to classify them as atlases. Examples are Caspar Danckwerth's Newe Landesbeschreibung der zwey Hertzogthümer Schleswich und Holstein … (Schleswig, 1652), with 40 maps by Joh. Mejer, the Allgemeine Welthistorie … published by J.J. Gebauer (Halle, 1785), with 124 maps, Jens Peter Trap's Statistisk-topographisk Beskrivelse af Kongeriget Danmark … (Copenhagen, 1860), with 131 maps, and Erik Pontoppidan's Den Danske Atlas eller Konge-Riget Dannemark, … (Copenhagen, 1781) with 174 maps. Atlas or not, the important thing is that we have here a rare example of an impressive fully indexed catalogue of books with maps, many of them scarce.
Two indices, of 22 pages each, complete this work and attest to the great care applied to the whole work: an index of persons, with biographical data — extremely useful ! — and a geographical index tracing essential toponyms back to the map entries. To sum up: a book that is well conceived, easy to consult and rewarding to study.
by Wulf Bodenstein
(1) Volume 1: Detlev Kraack, Der Flensburger Atlas Major, Husum, 1997, no ISBN. - Volume 2 : Gerhard Kraack, Die Jordtsche Kartensammlung aus Flensburg, Husum, 2000, ISBN 3-88042-942-1. Both can be ordered from the address above.