The first geographical atlas. Atlases - cartographic encyclopedias The world's first geographical atlas

Approximately like an opera to a separate piece of music. This is a very apt analogy. Indeed, each atlas is a set of separate cartographic plots, united by a common idea and subordinate to a single program.

The heavy folios of the capital atlases of the world contain hundreds of maps, they are mounted in hard covers with gold stamping and take up almost the entire desktop. Thin study atlases easily fit in a school bag, and elegant small atlases can be carried in your pocket (they are called pocket atlases). And all this is one family of special cartographic works, distinguished by unity and completeness. The creation of an atlas is a difficult and responsible task, it is the pinnacle of cartographic art. Each atlas is a cartographic encyclopedia - a systematized collection of knowledge and information about the territory. Just like encyclopedias, atlases are universal, sectoral or regional.

In the Middle Ages, Ptolemy's atlas was forgotten, but at the very beginning of the 15th century. the Greek manuscript and the maps themselves were translated into Latin, colored and published under the title "Cosmography".

Renaissance scientists were amazed: the ancient Greeks, it turns out, had a broad geographical outlook and quite accurately represented the world around them, knew how to depict seas and countries in detail and correctly, used and. Ptolemy's Atlas began to be reprinted many times, replenishing it with new maps. This was especially facilitated by the invention of printing. The first printed atlas was published in 1477 in Bologna and in a short period of time it was reprinted more than 30 times with additions and clarifications. The great work of Ptolemy acquired such a high authority that it even began to slow down the development of cartography. And so it went on almost until the era of the Great, when the boundaries of the known world moved apart, cartography rose to a new level and new atlases began to appear.

In the Middle Ages, portolan atlases - special marine navigation charts with grids - became widespread. They depicted the coastline in great detail with all the bays and bays, and this was the main content of the maps. Portolans were used for navigation in the Mediterranean and, off the coast of Europe and Africa, sometimes in. Portolan atlases, in addition to a set of such maps, often also contained survey, navigation tables, calendars, reference information on astronomy and astrology.

In the second half of the XVI century. the mapping center has moved to . Cartographic manufactories arose here, where new maps were engraved and printed, depicting the world as it appeared after the discoveries, and other navigators. It was a golden age. Maps and atlases of that era are now kept in libraries and museums as precious monuments of science and wonderful examples of fine art. The engraver and cartographer Abraham Ortelius published in 1570 a collection of maps "Theatrum orbis terrarum", which can be translated from Latin as "The spectacle of the globe of the earth." The name conveyed the essence very accurately: the atlas contained 53 expanded sheets of maps, the first map showed the whole world, followed by maps of the parts of the world - America, Asia, Africa and Europe, and then maps of individual countries. The atlas was essentially a collection of maps created by other cartographers. Ortelius indicated the names of all authors, supplied the atlas with geographical descriptions, a beautiful title page, an alphabetical list of all countries and an index of geographical names.

And yet the first atlas in its modern sense was created by the king of cartographers Gerardus Mercator, an older contemporary of Ortelius. All Mercator's maps have been skillfully compiled from the latest sources, expedition reports, geographical descriptions, and coordinated specifically for this atlas. Projections were calculated for a number of maps. Mercator published the first part of the atlas in 1585, and the second part four years later. In total, the atlas included about 80 maps of European countries. Already after the death of the great cartographer, the work was completed by his son Rumold and published in 1595 under the title "Atlas, or Cosmographic considerations about the creation of the world and the view of the created." So for the first time in cartography the name "Atlas" appeared. It comes from the name of the legendary Moorish king Atlas, the patron of sciences, a philosopher and cartographer who made the first heavenly. The name is firmly entrenched in science and not only in cartography. There are, for example, plant atlases, animal atlases, cloud atlases and anatomical atlases.

In Russia, maps were called drawings, and atlases were called drawing books or size books. The space of Muscovy was large, drawings of its individual parts were drawn up and, probably, somehow brought together. The inventory of the archives of Ivan the Terrible mentions many drawings of the Russian state, but, alas, almost nothing has survived: enemy invasions, devastating unrest and merciless fires destroyed these monuments of ancient Russian cartography. Only the "Book of the Great Drawing" is well known - a detailed geographical description of the "Great Drawing of the entire Moscow state", compiled around 1600. Then the drawing became "dilapidated, henceforth it is not possible to look at the tracts on it, it was beaten all over and fell apart." The “Book…” describes road maps, population, rivers and roads, geographical names are given. There is an assumption that the individual parts of this drawing were bound into a book and made up a kind of atlas. The Siberian drawings were more fortunate. The "Drawing Book of Siberia", compiled in 1701 by S. U. Remezov (1642 - after 1720), a famous cartographer who lived and died in Tobolsk, has survived. This is a large format atlas containing two general drawings of Siberia and 21 drawings of its parts. The maps do not have a mathematical basis, but they show in great detail and quite accurately the river network of Siberia, settlements, and ethnography. This is a real atlas in the modern sense with a title page, table of contents, preface, table of conditional abbreviations. The handwritten “Service Drawing Book of Siberia” on 116 sheets, collected by the sons of S. U. Remizov after his death, has also been preserved.

In the era of Peter I, satin mapping was on the rise. In the first half of the XVIII century. a whole series of atlases of both Black and. In the "History of Peter" A. S. Pushkin notes the sovereign's special attention to cartographic works.

A notable work of Russian cartography was the Atlas of the All-Russian Empire, the compilation of which was begun by I.K. Kirillov (1689 - 1737), a prominent statesman, cartographer and geographer of the 18th century. According to his plan, the three volumes of the atlas were to contain more than 300 sheets of general geographical, historical and, most importantly, economic maps. During his lifetime, the author managed to print and prepare for publication 37 maps.

These are the origins of domestic atlas cartography, later marked by remarkable works (capital atlases of the world, oceans, other planets), which won the recognition of cartographers around the world.

Atlas- this is a systematic collection of maps, made according to a single program as an integral work. This is not just a set of cards under a common binding, but a system of interdependent and complementary cards. If a separate map is considered as a spatial model of a phenomenon, then the atlas appears as a model of a whole geographical system. The map system of the atlas is divided into sections, and each of them has a main and additional maps showing separate subsystems (for example, relief, soils, climate) and components (say, the climate map subsystem includes maps of precipitation, temperatures, prevailing winds). In addition, there are maps that characterize the interaction of components (for example, the interaction of winds and ocean currents or the relationship of relief with geological structure). Also, the atlas will certainly include maps of integral characteristics, which reflect the results of the interactions of individual components. For example, environmental maps provide insight into the combined influence of natural and social factors on people's living conditions. There are maps of geosystem dynamics in the atlases, which show the direction of the transfer of matter and energy, for example, the movement of sediments, the transportation of industrial goods, and much more. In short, by studying the maps of the atlas, one can well imagine the basic properties of geographic systems and how they function and interact. Atlas maps are convenient to compare, compare and superimpose on top of each other. If necessary, you can get quantitative information, make mathematical correlations and create derivative images. Atlases are specifically designed for such work. As befits encyclopedic publications, they have a multipurpose purpose.

To solve all these problems, the atlas must meet certain requirements that ensure its internal unity:

the atlas should have a minimum number of different cartographic projections, it is even desirable to have one projection, as this will simplify the comparison of maps;
it is advisable to use one for all maps, and if this is not possible, then the scales should be multiples; atlas maps should be drawn up on a single basic basis;
legends of different maps, scales and gradations must be mutually coordinated;
it is important to observe on the maps of the atlas a single level of generalization and the same detail in the depiction of phenomena;
it is absolutely necessary to mutually coordinate maps of different subjects and eliminate random discrepancies in the depiction of contours (when creating atlases, matching maps is the main concern of cartographers);
all atlas data must be related to the same date, to a single time interval;
maps should have common design principles, a common design style - this gives the atlas unity.

Large teams of specialists usually work on atlases - cartographers, geographers of various profiles, geologists, ecologists and other representatives of the Earth sciences. The work takes a long time, a lot of time is spent on collecting material and coordinating maps. On the other hand, a good comprehensive atlas serves for many years and even after centuries does not lose its significance: after all, this is a fundamental set of documents on the state of a geographical system for a certain time slice.

By spatial coverage, atlases are divided into atlases of planets (for example, atlases of the world, Venus, the Moon), continents, oceans, large geographical areas, states, regions, cities. A variety of variants of such atlases are possible, depending on the characteristics of the territorial division according to administrative, political, historical, natural, and economic characteristics. There are atlases covering only the hemisphere (“Atlas of the far side of the Moon”), atlases of groups of countries (“Atlas of the Danube countries”) and atlases of small territories and water areas (“Atlas of the south coast”, “Atlas”).

According to the content, atlases are general geographical, physical-geographical, socio-economic, environmental, historical, general complex. From a practical point of view, the most useful is the creation of atlases for their intended purpose, in accordance with which atlases are distinguished for reference, scientific reference, popular, educational, tourist, road, military, etc.

Reference atlases- these are usually general geographical and political-administrative atlases that reflect general geographical elements in as much detail as possible - settlements, relief and hydrography, road network and borders. Atlases are especially accurate in terms of nomenclature, accompanied by extensive indexes and other reference data.

Scientific reference atlases- major cartographic works that provide the most complete and scientifically substantiated (at the current level of knowledge) characterization of the territory. These are the same cartographic encyclopedias, often multi-volume, that were discussed above. They contain a systematic image of the territory and are intended mainly for scientists, administrators, planning authorities, etc. Such is the multi-volume Atlas of the Oceans, the Physical and Geographical Atlas of the World, the Atlas of World Resources, etc.

Popular atlases intended for the general reader. They are publicly available, and their use does not require professional training. They are addressed to schoolchildren studying their native land, tourists and local historians, hunters and fishermen. These atlases include only the basic maps of nature and the economy, but supplement them with maps of sightseeing places and historical monuments, maps of tourist routes. Such atlases are usually accompanied by bright photographs, drawings, and detailed reference data.

The military and military history atlases, intended for the highest command staff and officers of the army and navy. Anyone who happened to see these wonderful publications, for example, the old Atlas of the Red Army or the newer Atlas of an Officer, knows how high quality these publications are. They are easy to use, strict in design, full of reference materials on military, economics and nature, they include information on topography and astronomy, plans of the largest cities.

National Atlas is a cartographic encyclopedia of the country. It contains a versatile description of nature and resources, population, history and culture, economy and ecological state of the country. The national atlas is always created by state cartographic institutions and is of an official nature. The national atlas reflects the level of development of the country, its economy, the degree of scientific knowledge and cartographic production.

The first atlases did not bear this name until the 1595 atlas from Gerardus Mercator. The first book that can be called an atlas is an atlas that was compiled by Claudius Ptolemy, a geographer from Alexandria, around 150 AD. The first edition was published in Bologna in 1477 and contained 27 maps. Starting in 1544, many maps began to be published, especially in large trading centers such as Rome and Venice. Each map publisher produced them in accordance with their ideas and needs, so the maps of that time were very different from each other, including in size. It took time to bring them into line with each other. Although the term "atlas" was not yet used in 1544, these maps are called the "IATO atlas" (Italian, Assembled to Order - Italian collection of maps) or "Lafreri atlases" after the main publisher of maps of those times.
Abraham Ortelius published his atlas on May 20, 1570. The main feature of this atlas is that it is most similar to the modern one, unlike its predecessors. The spectacle of the globe (Theatrum Orbis Terrarum) contained 53 maps-pages reflecting various countries of the world. It was the first book to contain the best maps in a uniform size, which was very important for trade travel.
However, the term "atlas" appeared somewhat later and came into use along with the atlas of Gerard Mercator, which was called "Atlas, Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes De Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura".The name "Atlas" was used for the first time for a collection of geographical maps in 1595 by the cartographer Mercator in honor of Atlas, the mythical king of Libya, who, according to legend, first made a celestial globe; later this name was universally recognized. At the end of the XVI century. the first atlases for special purposes were published, among which the two-volume collection of nautical charts by L. Wagenar (1584–85) is known. In the XVII century. the production of atlases develops mainly in Holland; some of the A. g. grow into multi-volume editions (Blau's atlas in 12 large format volumes). In 1701, S. Remezov compiled the first Russian geographical atlas, The Drawing Book of Siberia. In the XVIII century. work on the creation of atlases occupies a prominent place in the activities of the Paris, St. Petersburg and Berlin Academy of Sciences. In the XIV century. thematic atlases appear.

The first map of Russia

The history of the creation of the first map of the Russian Empire dates back to 1745. The well-known Russian cartographer Ivan Kirilov, together with the great astronomer Joseph Nicola de Lisle, contributed to the creation and development of the collection of maps. The entire map of Russia represents the first and complete national study of the European and Asian part of Russia. Aleksey Postnikov, author of Russia in Maps, claims that this first atlas of Russia "combines all geographical discoveries at the beginning XVIII century, which gives us an idea of the Russian Empire of that time. The atlas includes 20 maps = 17 maps + 2 pages of text, including plan-schemes of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The cards have titles in German and Latin; geographical names in Russian and Latin alphabets. The text of the cartouche is entirely in Latin. The titles of the title pages were made in French and Russian under the titles Atlas Russicus and Atlas Russian. 13 maps of the European part of Russia with a scale of 1:1,470,000 (35 versts to one inch, 1 verst is equal to 3500 feet), and 6 maps of Siberia with a scale of 1:3,444,000 (82 versts to one inch). There are also additional maps of the territory of Russia, plans for the Russian-Turkish war of 1736, engravings of military fortifications, maps of Lake Ladoga, the vicinity of St. Petersburg, Kronstadt and the Gulf of Finland.
Thanks to Atlas, we learned the whole world!
General map of the Russian Empire extending from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean on a scale of 1:9030000

The heyday of cartography in ancient Rome is evident in the works Claudius Ptolemy ( 90-168 gᴦ. AD) Greek astronomer, cartographer. His "Guide to Geography" in eight books, undoubtedly belonging to the great works of ancient culture, predetermined the development of cartographic science for almost fourteen centuries. It was written around 150 AD. e. Six volumes of his works are devoted to the description of the Earth within the limits known to Ptolemy. The countries list: settlements, mountains, rivers, etc.; their coordinates are determined; the tribes and peoples inhabiting them are indicated (total 8000 geographical objects). 27 maps depict large parts of the Earth (atlas). The meridian at Ptolemy was - 37800 km. The direction laid down by Ptolemy can be called mathematical-geographical. His sphere included questions of finding out the shape and size of our planet, the development of cartographic projections and, most importantly, the determination of the geographical coordinates of points in order to create maps of the Earth.

Unlike Strabo, who is interested in the location of specific points and drawing up an accurate map of the world, at least of that part of it that is suitable for life, Ptolemy is primarily interested in the Earth - the whole Earth, and not just its habitable part. But above all, he was interested in a scientifically accurate representation of the spherical Earth in a readable form. In other words, he was interested in a map of the world. Claudius Ptolemy, more than any of the ancients, succeeded in defining the elements and forms of scientific cartography. With the publication of his Geography, cartography as we know it separated from geography as we understand it.

In fact, "Geography" is more of an atlas of the world with a long textual introduction to the subject of cartography than a treatise on geography. Here, for the first time, the responsibilities of the mapmaker, his limitations, and the nature of the materials with which he has to work were formulated. The world-mapping methods outlined by Claudius Ptolemy are the fundamental principles of modern geodesy.

In cartography, says Ptolemy, it is imperative to consider the shape and dimensions of the earth as a whole. Its position under the heavens is also of extreme importance, for in order to describe any particular part of the world, it is necessary to know under which parallel of the stellar sphere this part is located. Otherwise, how to determine the length of days and nights in this area, how to find out which stars are always overhead there, which rise from the horizon every night, and which do not appear at all? All such data should be considered important for the study and mapping of the world. And, he adds, "the great and perfect achievement of mathematics is that it has shown the human mind all these things." With the help of astronomy and mathematics, Ptolemy draws the final conclusion; The earth can be mapped with the same accuracy as the heavens have already been mapped.

Ptolemy began his career with the assimilation of the content of the works of Marina. Marin, according to Ptolemy, was a man of many sides; he discovered many things previously unknown, read almost all historians and corrected many of their mistakes (presumably, these are errors related to the geographical location of places that are mentioned in travel stories). Moreover, he constantly edited and reworked his own geographical maps; before they fell into the hands of Ptolemy, at least two "editions" had time to go out. The final versions were almost free from flaws, and his text, according to Ptolemy, was so reliable that "it seems that it is possible to completely describe the Earth on which we inhabit, from his comments alone, without any other research."

Ptolemy chose the grid of parallels and meridians created by Hipparchus and based on the division of the circle into 360 0 . Thus, he was able to mathematically accurately determine the location of any point. Ptolemy, believing that maps should be built according to the data of astronomical determination of coordinates, set himself the goal of correcting Marin's data and compiling their summary as an objective basis for a new map of the world.

The first book of the "Guide" deals with cartographic projections and indicates a number of coordinates calculated on the basis of the author's own astronomical observations. The book contains a theoretical and methodological introduction, which discusses ways to determine distances, the position of points and the image of the surface of the globe on a plane, i.e. what constitutes "mathematical geography". Here he critically examines Marin's data on the size of a known part of the Earth and tries to correct them. It is important to note that Ptolemy criticized Marinus for the fact that he built a world map in a cylindrical projection, which greatly distorts the distances along the parallels. Trying to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor, Ptolemy proposed two new cartographic projections - a simple conic and a pseudoconic equidistant one, which he successfully used in his scientific work.

The six following volumes (from the second to the seventh) contain tables of latitudes and longitudes and are a list of geographical names with their coordinates. However, of the 8,000 points he cited, only about 400 are based on observations of latitudes, and all other coordinates are calculated from the definitions of distances. Naturally, there were gross errors in Ptolemy's data (especially in longitudes), which led him to a strong exaggeration of the total length of land from west to east. In many cases, Ptolemy took different names of the same places from old sources as referring to different objects, which created a lot of confusion.

Due to the exaggerated size of Asia by travelers, it turned out that the world known at that time stretched for more than 180 ° (actually 130 °). On the 180th meridian of his chart is China, a gigantic landmass stretching from the top of the chart to the equator. From this it followed that the unknown part of the Asian continent stretched even further, to where the Pacific Ocean is now depicted.

At that time, there were no exact ways to determine geographic longitude. Therefore, the values of the longitudes of different points differed significantly from different authors. In addition, when carrying out measuring work, cartographers used imperfect measuring instruments. That is why, in fact, each of the geographical coordinates listed by Ptolemy (longitude and latitude) was an arbitrarily chosen value from the speculative estimates of the author himself. Moreover, Ptolemy, following the Marina, took as the main meridian (zero, meridian of reference) a line drawn in the north-south direction through the westernmost of the then known islands - either the Canaries or Madeira. Having chosen an approximate (estimated) longitude in the west, he constantly increased the error as he moved east. As a result, Ptolemy, proceeding in his calculations from an incorrect estimate of the size of the earth's circumference, made in his time by Posidonius, further exaggerated the extent of the lands in an easterly direction. Using the work of Ptolemy, Columbus assumed that Asia should be very close to Europe, if you go west.

The last book consists of maps of various regions of the Earth. Until now, it remains unclear whether Ptolemy himself compiled the maps that are traditionally attributed to him, or whether he only prepared the material and theoretical justification for these maps.

The original maps have been lost, but the treatise itself was discovered at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. Based on his descriptions, the Renaissance cartographers managed to reconstruct the lost map of the world.

"Geography Guides" is a unique geographical guide, according to which world maps were corrected. However, there are many inaccuracies and gaps on these "corrected" maps. For example, on a world map, the Indian Ocean is outlined from the south by a vast landmass. It is possible that Ptolemy borrowed this idea from Hipparchus, but it remains unclear exactly on what information Hipparchus himself was based. This "Unknown Southern Land" was preserved on all world maps until the 18th century, that is, until the voyages of Captain James Cook, who reported that such a land did not exist.

The Mediterranean region, parts of Western Europe, and the Middle East look much the same as they do on modern maps, but errors give an idea of how the ancient Greeks saw the world. Ptolemy did not know anything about the existence of the Americas, the island of Sri Lanka resembled the Indian Peninsula in size. Ptolemy generally overestimated the circumference of the Earth by about a quarter.

Ptolemy's picture of the world extends from the Canary Islands in the west to present-day Korea in the east. The northernmost point of the map is the legendary island of Thule, which could be either Scandinavia or the Orkney Islands. In the south, the map is bounded by the African Sahara, which passes into southeast Asia. There is no Pacific Ocean on the map, the size of the Mediterranean Sea is greatly exaggerated (by 20 degrees (61 instead of 41)).

For the Greeks, the Oikoumene (inhabited world) was centered in the Mediterranean. On the map, it is shown relatively accurately, since the author was based on the knowledge of the Greeks and Romans, accumulated over thousands of years. The coast of North Africa is also well mapped, including the city where Ptolemy lived, Alexandria, as well as Byzantium, the Black and even the Caspian Sea.

The description of Britain shows a good knowledge of the banks, estuaries and outlines of the rivers, possibly gleaned from Roman sources. Despite the incorrect depiction of Scotland from west to east (which was reflected in many other later classical maps), on the whole England is drawn relatively accurately on the map, including its location relative to Ireland.

In the Far East, at the farthest point of Ptolemy's map, lies the mysterious port of Cattigara, 177 degrees east of the Canary Islands. It is referred either to Ancient China, or to Korea, or even to the western coast of America. It is located on a huge mainland, which remains continuous until North Africa. Shown to the west is a prominent cape known as "Golden Chersonese", which appears to be the Malay Peninsula.

The further east, the more speculative and abstract becomes the geography of Ptolemy. For example, the large island of Taprobana stands out, which is much larger than Britain and is located approximately on the site of modern Sri Lanka. It is indicated that it takes 20 days to sail from India to it, and the coast is almost completely flat. The equator line runs along the island, and it is easy to confuse it with any island from East Africa to Indonesia.

Ptolemy believed that the inhabited world ended south of the equator, along a parallel running through southern Egypt and Libya. North Africa includes a network of lakes and rivers extending west from the Fayoum oasis in Egypt, but 16 degrees south of the equator is completely unknown, or terra incognita.

Ptolemy accompanied his work with an atlas of 27 maps: 10 regional maps of Europe, 4 maps of Africa, 12 maps of Asia and a summary map of the entire world known by that time.

The book gained such authority that even a century after the travels of Christopher Columbus and Magellan, which subverted the basic tenets of Geography, maps in the Ptolemaic style were still being published. Some of his erroneous ideas were persistently repeated on the maps of the 17th and 18th centuries, and as for inland Africa, his map was printed even in the 19th century, despite the fact that Ptolemy, without trifles, drew the western coast of Africa quite arbitrarily; although he cut the area allotted for Africa Marin by more than half, the contour he drew still had nothing to do with reality.

Another large-scale work of Claudius Ptolemy was the Almagest. It emphasized astronomy, so it was not as important for cartography as the "Guide to Geography", but also played a role in the development of cartographic science. After the publication of the Almagest, parts of the circumference were no longer expressed in awkward proportions. In the 9th chapter of the first book, Ptolemy explained how the table of chords is formed. He began with a circle, the circumference of which he divided into 360 degrees. Then I divided each part in half again. He divided the diameter of a circle into 120 equal parts, then divided each of the 60 radius parts into 60 equal parts, and then each again into 60 equal parts. In the Latin translation of the text, these parts became known as partes minutaeprimae and partes minutae secundae. , whence the modern angular "minutes" and "seconds" originated.