EARLY MAPS AT THE MUSEUM

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 291, 8 September 1928, Page 24

EARLY MAPS AT THE MUSEUM

THE MAP OF MALVOLIO’S FACE

The map collection of the British Museum is one of the finest in the ■world, but it is not often the public is given an opportunity of seeing this cartographical wealth displayed to such advantage as at the present moment. It is many years since an exhibition such as is now on view, in connection with the International Geographical Congress, was last held (says “The Observer.”). The maps, which are both manuscript and printed, are not confined to any one period or region, but have evidently been chosen with the idea of giving a general impression of the map treasures possessed by the Museum. They are arranged in twelve cases, several of which are devoted to maps of some particular kind. In general, it may be said that the interest of this exhibition (unlike that now being held at the Science Museum) is historical rather than scientific. One case is confined to early world-maps, another to plans and views of towns, a third to the development of the cartography of ■ the English counties, while London has a whole case to itself. To many people the most interesting section will, perhaps be that devoted to maps illustrating early voyages and travels, for the history of discovery is a theme of endless variety and interest. Sir Francis Drake is prominent here, no fewer, than three of the maps being concerned with his exploits. One of these is thought to be earliest map recording his famous voyage round the world in 1577-80—the first English circumnavigation of the globe. Walter Raleigh and Martin Frobisher are also among the famous men whose doing's are here recorded, and one map of much interest illustrates the travels of Anthony Jenkinson, the first Englishman to penetrate into Central Asia. As a sort of epitome of the discoveries of the great Elizabethan age we are shown the famous map which was prepared for the second editionof Richard Hakluyt’s “Principal Navigations,” and which is thought to be the one. to which Maria likened Malvolio’s face: “He does smile his face into more

lines than is in bhc new map with the augmentation of the Indies.” The Student of English County cartography can see the beginnings of the county map in the fine atlas of Christopher Saxton, and trace its development through Norden and Speed to the mid-seventeenth century atlases of Blaen and Jansson. The town section shows places as different as Exeter and Philadelphia, and ranges in date from a view of Jerusalem in 1486 to one of Cape Town in the late eighteenth century. In all this wealth of material, which includes manuscript maps of England by Matthew Paris, rare editions of Ptolemy’s Atlas, Visscher’s magnificent view of London in 1616, the first English map of India, and beautiful specimens of the portolan charts of the sixteenth century, it is difficult to single out any map for detailed description; but certainly one of the jewels of the collection is the recently-discovered map of the world by Giovanni Matteo Contanini. This remarkable map is one of the very few surviving from the first decade of the sixteenth century. Published in 1506, probably at Venice, it is the earliest printed map to show any part of America. Dating from the very year of Columbus’ death, it affords interesting evidence of the ideas about t.he New World current in Italy at that time, and, illustrates clearly the general view that in reaching the American mainland Columbus had really arrived on the shores of Asia. On this map, t-o. for the first time we get a recognisable presentation of t.he Indian peninsula, as well as of South Africa —the result of the discovery of the Cape route to India by Vasco da Gama in 1498. Intermingled with these modern features appear curious relics of the Ptolemaic conception of the world; among these ire the huge island called “Taprobana” and the long southern extension of Asia. It is an interesting, thought that it may have been from this very map that many men gained their first impressions of the meaning and significance of the wonderful discoveries in distant lands, of which news was being brought back to Europe almost from day to day.