Map of the ‘Midday Pole’

Press, 8 February 1985, Page 16

Map of the ‘Midday Pole’

A display of maps from the collection will be mounted this month in the museum’s Antarctic Lounge to coincide with the Mapkeepers’ Circle seminar to be held on February 13 and 14 in the Stringleman Room of the Canterbury Public Library. The museum’s display will mainly depict Canterbury history through a selection of representative maps from our large collection. Also of interest will be Polus Antarcticus, the latest addition to the Peter Skellerup Antarctic Library. The original engraving was made by Henricus Hondius in 1636, showing the Dutch explorations of the early 17th century. This map first appeared in 1637 in “Appendix Atlantis ...” by Hondius and Joannes Jansson, of which there were 35 folio editions between 1638 and 1681, varying in

their contents. It appears also in Jansson’s “Nouveau Theatre du Monde” 1641. The original copperplate was altered four times, and our map was printed after the first alteration, which was executed between 1641 and 1649, when Jansson produced a hand-coloured 'edition of Hondius’s map replacing Hondius’s name with his own in the lower cartouche. The original descriptive Latin text on the reverse was replaced by a German one, which gives the history of the explorations of the areas depicted. It begins: ‘Since we have decided to have a discussion about the Midnight Pole (North Pole) ... we have decided to do the same about the Midday (Southern) Pole and the lands and seas situated round and about it, which are named for the peculiarities or the nature of the

environment or after those Authors who first discovered them only recently.” The Dutch held supremacy in cartography in the 17th century because of Holland’s might as a commercial and naval power in the 16th century,.and the outstanding cartographic talents of the illustrious Mercator.

Jansson was one of the two major and competitive Dutch mapmakers of the time. He had his own particular style, but this map is very plain with none of the flamboyant “swash” lettering then popular on Dutch maps. Engravers commonly filled the spaces in maps with designs such as sea monsters, sailing vessels or topographical features. The design of the cartouches was probably influenced by sculpted plaster strapwork. The Antarctic Circle is shown at approximately 67 degrees within the greater mythical Terra Australis Incognita, which in some places coincides with the average maximum extent of sea ice as marked on modern Antarctic maps, and is in the proximity of some Sub-Antarctic Islands such as Bouvet, but otherwise bears no resemblance to the Antarctic continent as mapped today. More than a century was to pass before James Cook disproved the long-standing legend. The writer of the text was not unaware of the inadequacies of the cartography: “The nature of the world that lies under this Southern Pole can not be described precisely, because nobody has yet explored it, but it is known that it is a landmass that stretches far in all directions and one cannot declare whether it is one landmass or a number of islands in close proximity. We shall therefore pass this by and not engage in speculation about this surrounding landscape; some things are better left to the Painters who are more inclined to follow their fancy rather than the positive facts.” As can be seen, the painter did follow his fancy in the decorative vignettes which interpret impressions of the lands mapped, the inhabitants, customs and wildlife.

— Josie Laing