Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche, Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER

Listing of cartographic items displayed for visit of LIBER GdC Conference, 2004, to RGS

Collected, arranged, and listed by Francis Herbert (Curator of Maps, RGS-IBG)

A: The two world wall-maps exhibited behind glass in the Ambulatory, and one world wall-map exhibited behind glass in the [New] Map Room

NOVA ET EXACTA TOTIUS ORBIS TERRARUM DESCRIPTIO GEOGRAPHICA ET HYDROGRAPHICA, copper-plate wall-map of the world on 16 main sheets
An unicum of the Amsterdam 1608 (second?) state of the map of Jodocus Hondius sr (1563-1612), complete with surrounding engraved vignettes and letter-press text.  This is entry no.263 in The mapping of the world : early printed world maps 1472-1700 by Rodney W. Shirley FRGS, 4th ed. (Riverside CT : Early World Press, 2001). The Royal Geographical Society published a black-&-white facsimile (with notes by E. Heawood, Librarian) in 1927.  A state of 1603 - also an unicum - was sold at auction in Milan in March 1998 and is now in private possession in the USA.  Alterations were then made notably to the top centre (removal of dedication to Prince Maurice of Nassau) and to top left (replacement of map showing dispersal of the sons of Noah by female mythical figures of the four continents); the surrounding text and vignettes (small rectangular maps depicting historical, Classical, and religious themes) were changed completely. See: 'New light on Jodocus Hondius’ great world Mercator map of 1598’ by Brian Hooker, in The Geographical Journal (London : RGS),  March 1993,  vol.159 (1), 45-50; and A newly discovered Hondius map’ by Paul E. Cohen and Robert T. Augustyn, in The Magazine Antiques (New York), January 1999,  vol.153 (7), 214-217.

NOVA TOTIUS TERRARUM ORBIS TABULA, a copper-plate wall-map of the world on 21 sheets
The first edition of 1648 was published in Amsterdam by Joan [Joannes] Blaeu. California is still shown (cf the Hondius wall map of 1608, opposite) as an island. In The mapping of the world : early printed world maps 1472-1700 by Rodney W. Shirley FRGS, 4th ed. (Riverside CT : Early World Press, 2001) this is entry no.371. This is one of only two recorded copies of the second state of ca 1655-58, but lacking the 20 sheets of Dutch (with illustrations), Latin, or French (without illustrations) letter-press text at bottom. China and Korea are now modified, following publication of the Imperii Sinarum nova descriptio of Martino Martini SJ (Amsterdam : J. Blaeu, 1655). See 'A comparative study of two Dutch maps, preserved in the Tokyo National Museum : Joan Blaeu’s wall map of the world in two hemispheres, 1648 […]’ by Minako Debergh, in Imago Mundi : the journal of the International Society for the History of Cartography (Lympne Castle), 1983, 35, 20-36.

KUNYU WANGUO QUANTU, a woodcut wall-map of the world on 6 sheets
The original edition of 1602 was compiled by Matteo Ricci SJ; this is one of only two recorded complete copies of the post-1644 issue. See The search for the origins of the Chinese manuscript of Matteo Ricci’s maps’ by John Day, in Imago Mundi : the international journal for the history of cartography (London), 1995, 47, 94-117; and 'Osutoria Kokuritsu Toshokan tokoro-zo no Mateo Ritsuchi sekai-zu Kunyu Wanguo Quantu’ by KAWAMURA Hirotada, in Jimbun Chiri = Human Geography (Kyoto), 1988, 40(5), 17-37(403-423).

B: Items displayed in the ground-floor Education Centre (formerly: The Map Room) in which the LIBER GdC afternoon session took place

Mappa selenographica totam Lunae hemisphaerum visibilem complectens Observationibus propriis . . . quatuor Sectionibus constructa et delineata . . . Auctoribus Guilelmo Beer et Joanne Henrico Maedler (Berolini : Apud Simon Schropp & Soc., 1834): Map Room, Extraterrestrial 16

[The Hereford Cathedral mappamundi of Richard de Haldingham, c.1290-1310] / [col. MS facsimile] by Thomas Ballard of Ledbury, May 1831: Map Room, World 448 (on 4 sheets)

John Britton [portr.] / painted John Wood 1845; engraved C.E. Wagstaff 1846 [b&w photogr.]: Picture Library, 026476

['The Crane Line Underground map’] (“TPD XII.MMIII”): Map Room, Eng. & Wales S.837

[Survey of Israel road map of Israel, 2004 (showing the in-progress defensive wall/barrier)]: Map Room, Israel G.165

Map of Franz Josef Land. Showing journeys and discoveries of Frederick G. Jackson FRGS . . . 1895-7 [hand-map] for RGS Meeting of 8.11.1897 / J.W. Addison del.; F.S. Weller FRGS [state 1]: Map Room, Arctic Oc. S/S.148
Map of Franz Josef Land. Showing journeys and discoveries of Frederick G. Jackson, FRGS . . . Jackson - Harmsworth Polar Expedition. 1894-7 / F.S. Weller FRGS [state 2]: folded in The Geographical Journal (London : Royal Geographical Society), February 1898, 11(2): Foyle Reading Room
Map of Franz Josef Land. Showing journeys and discoveries of Frederick G. Jackson, FRGS . . . Jackson - Harmsworth Polar Expedition. 1894-7 / F.S. Weller FRGS [state 3]: folded in A thousand days in the Arctic / F.G. Jackson (London ; New York : Harper & Brothers, 1899), vol.2 (opposite p. 376): Library, Feilden Collection

Sketch map showing route of the 'Fram’ and Nansen’s and Johansen’s sledge journey [hand-map] for RGS Meeting of 8.2.1897 / Edinburgh Geographical Institute ; John Bartholomew & Co. [state 1]: Map Room, Arctic Oc.S/S.--. See 'The Royal Geographical Society’s membership, the map trade, and geographical publishing in Britain 1830 to ca 1930 : an introductory essay with listing of some 250 Fellows . . .’ by Francis Herbert, in Imago Mundi, 1983, 35, 67-95 (ill.), especially p.69
Sketch map showing route of the 'Fram’ and Nansen’s and Johansen’s sledge journey / Edinburgh Geographical Institute ; John Bartholomew & Co. [state 2 (lacks portrait of Nansen)]: folded in The Geographical Journal, May 1897, 9(5)
Sketch map showing route of the “Fram” and Nansen’s and Johansen’s sledge journey / Edinburgh Geographical Institute ; John Bartholomew & Co. [state 3]: folded in Fridtjof Nansen’s “Farthest North” : being the record of a voyage of exploration of the ship 'Fram’ 1893-96 . . . / F. Nansen (Westminster [London] : A. Constable, 1897), vol.2, following p.[672]: Library, Feilden Collection

Plan of London : drawn expressly for the Post Office . . . Directory for 1843 [with MS red dots to show residences of FRGS]: Map Room, Eng. & Wales S.581. See 'The Royal Geographical Society’s membership, the map trade, and geographical publishing in Britain 1830 to ca 1930 : an introductory essay with listing of some 250 Fellows . . .’ by Francis Herbert, in Imago Mundi, 1983, 35, 67-95 (ill.), especially p.73

The Karakoram Himalayas / surveyed in 1892 by W. Martin Conway & reduced from his drawing; Stanford’s Geogr[aphica]l Estab[lishmen]t (London : Royal Geographical Society, 1894), Sheet I 'Bagrot, Hunza, Nagyr & The Hispar Glacier’ & Sheet II 'The Biafo & Baltoro Glaciers’: Map Room

Antarctic regions : maps showing present state of research / J.G. Bartholomew FRSE, 1898. This flat map was prepared – with 'Royal Geographical Society’ at bottom edge - by end of September 1898 at request of J.S. Keltie (RGS Secretary) for 'special circulation’. The title was then changed to South polar chart by J.G. Bartholomew, F.R.S.E. showing Sir John Murray’s proposed scheme for Antarctic exploration 1898, the former RGS credit at bottom was replaced by 'Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1898’, and the 'Ocean currents’ circular inset map at bottom right had added (in blue) limits of 'British and American sphere’ & 'German and Scandinavian sphere’, it was issued (folded) to accompany a series of articles in The Scottish Geographical Magazine (Edinburgh : Royal Scottish Geographical Society), October 1898, 14(10)

The course of Antarctic exploration between longitudes 20°W. and 110°E. : map to accompany the paper by Mr. Lars Christensen on “Recent reconnaissance flights in the Antarctic” / compilation and outline by H.F. Milne ; writing by C.E. Denny, flat copy of that prepared for - and folded in - The Geographical Journal, September 1939, 94(3)

Diagram relating the discoveries of Wilkins and Ellsworth to those of the British Graham Land Expedition and (on verso) British Graham Land Expedition : sledge journeys and flights from the Southern Base, Aug. 1936 to Feb. 1937, flat copy of that prepared for - and folded in - The Geographical Journal, September 1940, 9(5). NB: a version of the first of these two items is engraved in glass outside the pavilion entrance to the Society in Exhibition Road.

C: Items displayed in the first-floor Lowther Room (formerly: Library Reading Room), following tours & tea break

Journal 1883-1884, vol. 6 [: 9 April 1883 – 10 July 1884] / F.C.P. Vereker: Archives, AR 178. MS journal of hydrographic surveyor Cdr Hon. Foley C.P. Vereker RN on HMS 'Magpie’ on orders to survey and revise Sunda Strait and NE Borneo coasts; includes extracts of Admiralty charts; MS (pen & ink) chart and water-colour sketches of (pre- and post-eruption) Krakatau; sepia photographs; press-cuttings; pen & ink and water-colour sketches of other scenery, of the 'Coco de mer’ (Seychelles), etc.; and Hydrographic Notice no.19 : Eastern Archipelago : Notice no.25 “derived principally from the report and surveys of Commander the Hon. F.C.P. Vereker, Her Majesty’s surveying vessel Magpie 1883” (8p.), printed October 1884

[Anonymous MS plan of Arroyos Molinos [i.e. Arroyomolinos de Montánchez], 3.12.1811]: Map Room, Spain S/S.49

Atlas, containing ten maps of Poland . . . / J.M. Bansemer & P. Falkenhagen Zaleski (London : J. Wyld [et al.], 1837) + 'Stanford’s map of the Kingdom of Poland . . .’ (27.4.1863) bound-in at end of 'regular’ atlas contents: Map Room, 1.C.123

Mapy Królestwa Polskiego wydane w latach 1815-1915 . . . : Katalog / Lucyna Szaniawska (Warszawa : Biblioteka Narodowa, 1997): Foyle Reading Room, Cartobibliography shelves

Liber cronicarum cum figures et ymaginibus ab inicio mu[n]di . . . (Nuremberg, 1497): Library, 265.D.25

Les plans de Paris des origines (1493) à la fin du XVIIIe siècle : étude, carto-bibliographie et catalogue collectif / Jean Boutier (Paris : BnF, 2003): FRR, Cartobibliography Shelves

Almanach national, géographique et portatif, . . . en dix cartes enluminées with 'Carte des environs de Paris. Departement de Paris divisé en ses six tribunaux ’(Paris, [1792+]): Library, Fordham Coll., 260.C.33. See Boutier (1993), entry no.356, where BnF Cartes et Plans is only location/exemplar cited

Eiland ter Tholen [MS map, ca 18--]: Map Room, Netherlands S/S.59

[Maps of Great Britain / Speed ; with MS additions chiefly heraldic] / maps engraved by P. van den Keere, except anon. MS map of Yorkshire: (London, ca 1605?): Map Room, 264.A.35

A Plan of the Town of Chudleigh in Devonshire / J. Rennel (MS, [1754] but ca 1830 copy): Map Room, England & Wales S/S.305

A new plan of the City of Bath / J. Rennel (MS, ca 1758-59): Map Room, England & Wales S/S.304

A Plan of Milford Haven in Pembroke Shire / J. Rennel (MS, ca 1756-59): Map Room, England & Wales S/S.306
See James Rennell’s manuscript maps in the RGS Collection by Andrew S. Cook, in The Geographical Journal, March 1978, 144(1), 157-159: FRR

Cartes des environs de plusieurs places, entre la Meuse et la Moselle, 3 / [Naudin family] (Paris, ca 1760): Map Room, 5.H.12(21). See Luxembourg, ville obsidionale : cartographie et ingénierie européennes d’une place forte du XVIe au XIXe siècle by Marcel Watelet (Luxembourg, 1998), especially pp.294-295 for 'Plan de Luxembourg’ (col. ill.)

Yugoslavia and Albania / George Philip & Son Ltd, The London Geographical Institute (London : G. Philip [, June 1931]) with MS corrections for revision: Map Room, Philip Archive, Misc. loose maps (ca 1935-58)

Pizigani map MCCCLXVII [coloured MS facsimile on boards, clasp-bound within green morocco with gold lettering on front]: “Executed expressly for and presented to the Royal Geographical Society by Admiral Krusenstern of the Russian Navy June 1842”: Map Room, Portolan Chart 50

Sketch map of the northern and central regions of Pataconia [!] / Llwyd ap-Iwan (MS, ca 1901): Map Room, Argentina S.73. The surveyor & cartographer Ap-Iwan was murdered near Esquel in December 1909 – allegedly a victim of the robbery team of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (see, for example, the US film starring Paul Newman & Robert Redford)

Plan of A Proposed Harbour on the Water at Wick / Wm Campbell (holograph [?], 1814): Map Room, Scotland S/S.1

Kaart over Fiskernaessets Distrikt / sammenstillet . . . af S. Kleinschmiedt (Godthaab, 1.2.1859): Map Room, Arctic Oc. S/S.164

Mappamondo / G[iacomo]. Gråberg ; A. Rogerone (Genova, 1802): Map Room, World S/34 [proof state]. NB: North America is named 'Columbia’, South America named 'America’

Mouth of the River Corentyne. / Surveyed by Robert H. Schomburgk (holograph, 1837): Map Room, Guyana S.16

Map of the White Nile from Lardo to Urondogani / Col. [C.G.] Gordon (MS, surveyed 1875-76): Map Room, Uganda S.14

[Land utilization survey of Scotland] / London School of Economics ; Dudley Stamp]: Map Room, Scotland G.38, sheets 65 'Dunoon & Loch Fyne’ & 71 'Sound of Jura’. MS land use surveys by local schoolchildren of 1933 on Ordnance Survey 1:63 360-scale base-maps of 1946 & 1943 respectively

Europe 1:1 000 000, [series] G.S.G.S. No.2758 / compiled at RGS by Geographical Section, General Staff (Southampton : printed by Ordnance Survey, 1916): Map Room, World 1, sheets [N]P 35 & 36 'Helsingfors and Petrozavodsk’ ('Proof’ of 22 July 1916) and [N]R 35 & 36 'Nordkap and Romanov’ ('Provisional Edition’)

Ordnance Survey of Scotland, 1:63 360, sheet 32 (MS coloured relief on black & white base-map): Map Room, OS Specimens no.24

[Hyetographic map of Europe] : “Unfinished Proof” / W. & A.K. Johnston (Edinburgh, ca 1842): Map Room, Europe G.204. See “The map is a very pretty one” by Francis Herbert, in The Map Collector, June 1986, 35, 22-27 (ill.)

Sibirskoy linii i chast Kirgizskoy stepi s primechaniyami po traktu Gospodina Polkovinka Bentama / S. Bentham (MS, ca 1781): Map Room, Kazakhstan S.3. See 'In the service of Catherine the Great: the Siberian explorations and the map of Sir Samuel Bentham’ by Dennis Reinhartz, in Terrae Incognitae, 1994, 26, 49-60 (ill.)

[Portolan chart (MS) of Atlantic Ocean with coasts of NE North & South America, British Isles, and SW Africa] / anon. ([?Portugal], ca 1550): Map Room, Portolan Chart 49. See Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica by Armando Cortesão & Avelino Teixeira da Mota (Lisboa, 1960) [and reduced-size reprint, with new introduction by Alfredo Pinheiro Marques, 1987], vol. I, p.161 ('Duas cartas anónimos, c.1550 = Two anonymous charts, c.1550’) & plate 81

[10 proof plates of Europe and of European countries c.1830-32 for the folio The London atlas of universal geography] / John Arrowsmith (London, 1834): Map Room, Portfolio 308 (plates [3], [8] – [10], [12], [13], [16] – [18], & [20]). See The London atlas of universal geography from John Arrowsmith to Edward Stanford: origin [. . .] of a British world atlas from the 1830s to the 1930s by Francis Herbert, in Imago Mundi, 1989, 41, [98]-123 : ill.

[Terrestrial globe (27 cm) of 1515] / Johannes Schöner (ca 1842/47 facsimile): Map Room. See 'The earliest known facsimile globe’ by Francis Herbert, in The Map Collector, Winter [i.e. December] 1987, 41, 22-23 : ill.

A Draft of the Bay of Coche & R: Nagor on the Coast of Guzzaratt . . . / Charles Massey (MS, ca 1784): Map Room, Portolan Chart 41

Ryad III List 4 : g. Estlyandskoy (with Revel [Tallinn] area) / grav[iroval]. kon[tury]. Chin. Fedotov Z. pred. i gory. Chin. Terzhanov [et al.], of topographic map of Russian Empire at 1:126 000, ca 1840 [?]: Map Room, USSR (Eur.) G.15

[Physical map of the world in two hemispheres] / sostavil St[epan]. Baranovskiy ; Ris[oval]. i pech. v Lit. Tengstrema (S. Peterburg : Krasheninnikova i K., 1847g.): Map Room, World 847

To His Most Gracious Majesty William the Fourth, These Charts of the Prevalent Currents in The Atlantic Ocean, Constructed by the late Major [James] Rennell, are [. . .] Dedicated, by the Author’s [. . .] Daughter, [. . .] Jane Rodd. / engraved by J. & C. Walker (London : J.G. & F. Rivington, for Lady Rodd, 13.8.1832): Map Room, Atlantic Oc. G.3 ('Chart the Second. The Western Division of the Atlantic Ocean’ etc.)

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