5 The development of cartography in the Netherlands had a direct impact on map-making in Germany and France, with the map-makers from the three countries often collaborating with one another. Many atlases were co-published by the Dutch and French, and Dutch atlases began to be issued with French text. Two of the key maps on the Singapore and Malacca Straits in the Rare Maps Collection were produced by French and English map-makers.īy the start of the 17th century, Paris had become an important secondary publishing centre, rivalling those in the Netherlands, namely Antwerp and Amsterdam. The English started producing better quality and more accurate maps in the 18th and 19th centuries. The French and English were not as active in map-making as the Italians, Germans or Dutch, although they did produce some fine maps of their own. German map-making declined in the 17th century when Dutch map-makers became more prominent, but when the latter slowed down in the 18th century, German map-makers became active again. German map-makers also created better tools for map surveying. With the advances in printing technology in the 16th century, Germany (where the printing press was invented) became an important centre for map-making, far surpassing Italy. 3 Notable Dutch cartographers during this period include Gerard Mercator, Abraham Ortelius, Willem Janszoon Blaeu and Jodocus Hondius.Īlthough Germany did not dominate map-making for an entire era, unlike the other European countries, German map-makers made important contributions to map-making from the 15th to 18th centuries. The period from 1570 to 1670 was known as the golden age of cartography and the Dutch were the leading map-makers of this era. Map-making subsequently declined again in the 1800s. 1 However, map-making in Italy languished at the start of the 1500s (unlike in central Europe), until it was revived by the leading Italian geographer Giacoma Gastaldi in the mid-1500s. Italy and Germany played important roles in map production at the start of the Renaissance period, particularly Italy, whose coastal cities served as the midpoint between the trade routes of Europe and Asia. The textual instructions in Geography contained several fundamental errors but nevertheless continued to influence map-making for centuries despite newer discoveries. These early maps were based on Claudius Ptolemy’s Geography, the 2nd-century Greek astronomer’s work that contained precise instructions on mapping the world. The first printed maps of Southeast Asia, however, were produced by Italian and German map-makers from the late 1470s onwards – even before the Portuguese and Spanish arrived in the region. Having found a safe route to Asia, the Iberian powers began to explore the region, in the process mapping the surrounding lands as well as charting its waters. The Spanish followed suit not long after and managed to sail to Asia in the early 16th century. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover a sea route to Asia in the late 15th century when the intrepid explorer Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498. These early maps and charts were produced during the “age of discovery” when Europeans were looking for a sea route to Asia and the famed Spice Islands (Moluccas, today known as Maluku) of Indonesia, in the hope of securing the lucrative trade in spices such as pepper, cloves and nutmeg. The Rare Maps Collection includes maps that illustrate the development of European mapping of early Southeast Asia, as well as the history of the region. In 2012, the library acquired the valuable and historically significant David Parry Southeast Asian Map Collection, which constitutes 254 maps dating from the 15th to 19th centuries and created by prominent European cartographers. Other maps were donated to the library and the rest were purchased over the years. Mills in 1936, now known as the Mills Collection, which comprises 208 maps and charts relating to the Malay Peninsula from the period before 1600 until 1879. Most of the maps were inherited from the former Raffles Museum and Library, in particular a set of early Malayan maps photocopied by J.V. The majority of the maps were printed by European map-makers before 1945. The collection contains topographic maps and navigational charts covering Singapore, Southeast Asia and Asia, as well as town plans and street maps of Singapore and Malaya. The National Library’s Rare Maps Collection forms part of the valuable Rare Materials Collection held in its Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. a donneé au public & sur les memoires les plus recens et mis au jour, Johannes Covens and Cornelis Mortier (Amsterdam, circa 1730). L’Asie dressée sur les observations de M.rs de l’Académie Royale de Sciences & de Sanson, Nolin, Du Fer, De L’Isle & principalement sur la carte que monsieur N: Witsen Bourgemaistre &c. Detail from a wall map by map printing and publishing firm Covens & Mortier.
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