Posts from — October 2006

…my apologies for no posts lately. I blame not being born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

Hopefully I will have time to post soon.

The Library of Congress Geography and Map Division has introduced a new web site called “Zoom Into Maps“. The site provides a sampling of many maps from its American Memory online collection. The site is broken down into several sections including Exploration, Migration and Settlement, Military and Pictoral maps. The site is intended to increase general knowledge about maps and by doing so, provides an interesting portal into a sampling of maps from the library’s enormous collection of digitized antique maps. As with all of the Map Division’s online maps, these maps are “zoomable” and can be examined in detail using Lizard Tech’s MrSID technology. The MrSID Viewer makes it possible to view and work with these maps “offline.”

Via The Map Room and Very Spatial.

[tags]Online Map Collections, Cartography, Antique Maps, Library of Congress Map Division[/tags]

David Leveille, a producer for BBC’s The World radio show, emailed me a few days ago regarding a previous posting on the auctioning of the world’s first printed atlas which sold for $3,991,970 USD (see previous posts here and here.) He was wondering if I knew of anyone who is familiar about the story associated with the atlas. I wrote back, giving him a couple of suggestions. I just checked out his Geo Quiz site and see that he got in touch with Sotheby’s representative Mitzi Meena, who described the excitement at the auction:

The bidding was frenzied. The auctioneer opened the bidding at $600,000 and already there were 6 people battling to get in on the act, but then by the time we got down to 1 million pounds the number had whittled down to two, and so there was just one man biding on phone versus another in the room.

The World has an audio clip of anchor Marco Werman speaking with the man who made the winning bid for an American client, London-based rare books and maps dealer Bernard Shapiro, who describes the atlas as, “an amazingly accurate description and pictoral illustration of the world at that time,” (particulary if you consider that it was made over 500 years ago without the benefits of modern technology.) There are only 31 known copies of the atlas in the world today, with only 2 being privately owned. With regard to the winning bid, Shapiro states that his client thinks he got the atlas “very reasonably.”

[tags]Ptolemy, Ptolemy Atlas, Cosmographia, Antique Atlas, Atlas Auction, Antique Maps, Antique Map Collecting[/tags]

If you are fortunate enough to be in Fort Langley, British Columbia before January 14th, 2007, why not check out “Maps: Changing Perspectives” at the Langley Centennial Museum and National Exhibition Centre. The exhibit:

…examines both historic and modern maps of the Langley region so that visitors can both appreciate the beauty and usefulness of maps, as well as gain a new understanding of the way maps work and how past events have influenced our modern communities.

The exhibit also includes antique maps and survey equipment.

Admission is free but donations are accepted.

[tags]Antique Maps, Map Exhibits, Cartographic History[/tags]

The world’s first printed atlas mentioned in the last post went for a record $3.9 million (USD) yesterday at a Sotheby’s auction. The amount received for the 1477 edition of the atlas establishes a new record for any atlas ever sold at auction and was bought by dealer Bernard Shapero on behalf of a private dealer.

The AP story can be seen here. The Reuters story here.

[tags]Wardington Auction, Southeby’s, Antique Maps, Antique Atlas, Cosmographia, Ptolemy[/tags]

London’s Evening Standard has an article online tonight about a 529 year old atlas Cosmographia - based on the works of 2nd century geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus, (Ptolemy) - and how it might garner a price of more than £1.5 million (approx. $3 million USD) when it goes up for auction next week. The price estimate is a conservative one and experts believe it may surpass the world record of £1.5 million for a copy of the 16th century Doria Atlas. The atlas will be up for grabs at Sotheby’s in London on Tuesday. Like the record breaking Doria Atlas, this copy of Cosmographia hails from the collection of the late Lord Wardington, of Wardington Manor, near Banbury, Oxfordshire. The atlases were nearly destroyed in a large fire in April of 2004. This copy of Cosmographia was once owned by Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) and contains some of his annotations.

From description of the atlas in Sotheby’s catalog of the Wardington auction:

Lord Wardington writes: “Imagine the wonderment of someone looking at a map for the first time! For these maps are the first ever printed, and for most people at that time they would have been the first maps that they had ever seen. This is the first atlas ever published… as such this book is therefore of the first importance in the field of geography, science and all the graphic arts. Today, what is not generally realised is that maps, hitherto nearly always treated as utilitarian pieces of paper, were at this time and always have been, works of art in the technique of engraving, having as they do elaborate decoration of many kinds, and magnificent calligraphy… Nor is it generally fully appreciated that up to the publication of this atlas all maps had been original manuscripts, or copies of those manuscripts, and laziness on the part of the copier, or illegibility due to use often caused inaccuracies. But with the printing of maps, scholars of all nationalities could compare and revise, and this led immediately to a very considerable advance in geographical knowledge… The purchase of it was undoubtedly a colossal extravagance, but it became available when I was intending to hand over some money I received from the Forster Trustees. I am hoping it will prove a good investment” (Wardington Catalogue).

[tags]Antique Maps, Map Auctions, Famous Cartographers, Cartographic History[/tags]