The study of sea charts constitutes one of the most flourishing branches of the history of maps and mapping, inspiring rich scholarship and considerable popular interest in these paper and vellum instruments which allow one to plot and maintain a course in open waters. As historical sources, charts can serve as records of past voyages, as examples of sailing and surveying practices, as windows into patronage networks, as specimens of quixotic aesthetic preferences, as traces of the people, nations, and empires that made and carried them, and more. The articles, which came to us independently and which are presented collectively in this thematic issue of Imago Mundi, testify to both the depth of interest and the range of questions inspired in the study of maritime charting.
The articles highlight the materiality and production of charts in the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds, starting with specimens from the earliest centuries of European chart use (c. 1200–c. 1500). Fateme Savadi and Tony Campbell, Jacques Mille, and Gregory McIntosh creatively investigate and analyse a very limited surviving evidence base—fragments, textual descriptions, and facsimile reproductions. Their work underscores that lacunae in materials and information is standard for this period (c. 1200–c. 1500), necessitating the type of insightful, close reading and scholarly collaboration on display in these studies.
Several of the articles stress the boundary-crossing knowledge exchanges that facilitate chart production, even in times of conflict or limited communication. Savadi and Campbell trace one savant’s ingenious use of a portolan chart across cultural and religious lines in the thirteenth century. McIntosh argues that multiple hands were at work across multiple years, even decades, to create one chart, while Michael Barritt describes the individuals and institutions necessary to take a chart from survey to printed object in the Peninsular War in the early-nineteenth century. Elizabeth Chant examines how one atlas can demonstrate the dissemination of artistic and imperial ideas between late-eighteenth century Rio de la Plata and Britain, France and Spain, even if the chart maker remains an elusive figure. In each of these cases, navigational knowledge was considered of such high value and potential that its circulation was ensured, even if some entities would have preferred to keep coveted information from rivals.
Of course, there are limitations to what we do and can know about the history of nautical charting. While these articles reveal much about charts as material objects made by a variety of actors, they are less forthcoming on possible uses and audiences. There is still much to study and learn, as well as dialogues to be engaged in with later and non-Western charting traditions on water and in the air, and connections to be made to the wider field of the history of cartography.
In a first step in such engagement, this issue’s Forum takes a feature often associated with oceanic travel—the journey line—and asks experts to problematise its appearance and application on maps and charts from different cartographic traditions across millennia (including the twenty-first).
We also take the next step in creating connections between the journal and its readers and invite 500-word reactions to the Forum section. We will feature responses to this and the inaugural Forum on born-digital map collecting published in issue 75.1 in a future volume (please send to [email protected]).
In closing, we would like to acknowledge the considerable contributions of Imago Mundi’s long-time copy editor and editorial assistant, Mary Alice Lowenthal, who concluded thirty years of service with issue 75.1. Mary Alice showed unwavering commitment to the high standards of the journal, ensuring that articles were rigorously edited and presented. The previous editor, Catherine Delano-Smith, who recruited Mary Alice, writes that, as ‘one of the last of a generation formally trained in editing, statement-checking, and copy-editing,’ Mary Alice brought an impressive work ethic, ‘eye-opening … meticulousness and persistence,’ ‘vigorous’ engagement with manuscripts, and a ‘patient scrutiny of the text' (email message, 10 September 2023). Our publishers concur, writing that ‘Mary Alice Lowenthal’s dedication, skills and commitment will be difficult to match.’ We are grateful to Mary Alice for showing us IM’s practices and traditions and wish her the best.
Notes
1 Catherine Delano Smith, email to editors, 10 September 2023.