Challenges of Mapping the Classical World

223 Pages·2018·15.925 MB·English

by  Richard J.A. Talbert

Challenges of Mapping the Classical World
Challenges of Mapping the Classical World collects together in one volume fourteen varied items
written by Richard Talbert over the past thirty years. They cohere around the theme of mapping the
classical world since the nineteenth century. All were originally prompted by Talbert’s commission
in the late 1980s to produce a defi nitive classical atlas after more than a century of failed attempts by
the Kieperts and others. These he evaluates, as well as probing the Smith/Grove atlas, a successful
twenty-year initiative launched in the mid-1850s, with a cartographic approach that departs radically
from established practice. Talbert’s initial vision for the international collaborative project that resulted
in the B arrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (2000) is presented, and the successive twice-
yearly reports on its progress from 1991 through to completion are published here for the fi rst time. A
further item refl ects retrospectively on the project’s cartographic challenges and on how developments
in digital map production were decisive in overcoming them. This volume will be invaluable to anyone
with an interest in the development and growing impact of mapping the classical world.
Richard J. A. Talbert is William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of History at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. As well as publishing extensively on historical cartography and other
topics, he has edited A tlas of Classical History (now under revision), W all Maps for the Ancient World ,
and Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World .

Challenges of Mapping the
Classical World
Richard J. A. Talbert
First published 2019
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Richard J.A. Talbert
The right of Richard J. A. Talbert to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Talbert, Richard J. A., 1947– author.
Title: Challenges of mapping the classical world / Richard J.A. Talbert.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2018014432 (print) | LCCN 2018030176 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429485688 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429939471 (web pdf) | ISBN 9780429939464 (epub) | ISBN 9780429939457 (mobi/
kindle) | ISBN 9781472457820 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Classical geography. | Cartography—History—To 1500.
Classifi cation: LCC DE29 (ebook) | LCC DE29 .T35 2018 (print) | DDC 912.38—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018014432
ISBN: 978-1-4724-5782-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-48568-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
This book is dedicated to the hundreds of cartographers, scholars, staff and
sustainers who collaborated to create the B arrington Atlas

Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Walter Goffart’s H istorical Atlases: The First Three Hundred Years,
1570–1870 (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003).
Review in H istory Today December 2003, p. 58 6
2 William Smith and George Grove, eds., A tlas of Ancient Geography
Biblical and Classical (1872–1874): Introduction to the 2013 Reissue
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2013, pp. v–xii) 8
3 Carl Müller (1813–1894), S. Jacobs, and the Making of Classical Maps
in Paris for John Murray (I mago Mundi 46: 1994. pp. 128–50) 20
4 A Forgotten Masterpiece of Cartography for Roman Historians: Pierre
Lapie’s O rbis Romanus ad Illustranda Itineraria (1845) in H. M. Schellenberg,
V. E. Hirschmann, Andreas Krieckhaus, eds., A Roman Miscellany: Essays in
Honour of Anthony R. Birley on His Seventieth Birthday (Gdańsk: Gdańsk
University, 2008, pp. 149–56 and maps) 49
5 Heinrich Kiepert, F ormae Orbis Antiqui (1894–1914) : Introduction to
the 1996 Reissue (Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 1996, pp. V–VIII) 61
6 The Primary Classical Atlases and Map Series between 1870 and 1990 (1992) 69
7 Ségolène Débarre’s Cartographier l’Asie Mineure: L’orientalisme
allemand à l’épreuve du terrain (1835–1895) (Paris: Peeters, 2016).
Review in B ryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.05.27 110
viii Contents
8 Classical Atlas Project: Narrative Description 1990 (unpublished) 113
9 Classical Atlas Project: Instructions for Compilers 1990 (unpublished) 122
10 Classical Atlas Project: Half-yearly Reports to the U.S. National Endowment
for the Humanities, August 1991–May 2000 (unpublished) 129
11 Maps for the Classical World: Where Do We Go from Here? (American
Journal of Philology 118.2: 1997. pp. 323–27) 166
12 Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World : The Cartographic
Fundamentals in Retrospect (C artographic Perspectives 46: 2003.
pp. 4–27 and 72–76) 169
13 Mapping the Ancient World (co-authored with Tom Elliott) in A. K.
Knowles, ed., Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History (Redlands, CA:
ESRI Press, 2002, pp. 145–62) 188
14 Anne-Maria Wittke, Eckart Olshausen, Richard Szydlak, H istorischer
Atlas der antiken Welt. Der Neue Pauly. Supplemente Band 3 (Stuttgart/
Weimar: Metzler, 2007). Review in B ryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.07.22 193
Index 199
Preface and Acknowledgements
It struck me years ago that a collection of my widely scattered writings on mapping the classical world
from the nineteenth century onwards could have lasting value not just for the ancient fi eld but also for
the history of cartography. Colleagues, pupils and friends kindly endorsed this audacious supposition,
and when, in 2014, I eventually sent a proposal to Michael Greenwood, then editor at Ashgate Publish-
ing, he, too, reacted with enthusiasm. Accordingly, he and I fi rst determined an appropriate length for
the collection, and I then selected thirteen varied items written between 1990 and 2013; a single more
recent one (2017) was inserted later. Among those left aside is my 2015 review in T he Geographical
Review of William Koelsch’s G eography and the Classical World: Unearthing Historical Geography’s
Forgotten Past (2013), an embarrassing illustration of how geographers today may be insuffi ciently
aware of relevant initiatives undertaken outside their own departmental confi nes. Needless to say, the
present book is not the place for any of my writings on map-making in antiquity itself.
The fourteen items in total are presented here in three distinct groups (as the Introduction explains)
that mesh well with one another. The items have been published previously, except for a substantial
trio relating to the generous support awarded by the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities to
the international collaborative project – which I headed – to produce what became the B arrington Atlas
of the Greek and Roman World , published in 2000. No one but myself is to blame for the unduly long
interval between Ashgate’s acceptance of the proposal and my delivery of the book. As ever, my esti-
mate of how long it would take to clear prior commitments proved too optimistic. Meantime, Ashgate
was acquired by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) in 2015.
W arm thanks are due to my editors – initially Michael Greenwood, then Amy Davis-Poynter – and
Routledge staff; Tom Elliott, co-author of i tem 13; Mary Downs, for advice on presentation; George
Gerolimatos, for assistance in translating the long German quotation in i tem 5; Lindsay Holman, current
director of the Ancient World Mapping Center, for skilled help in preparing texts and images for produc-
tion; Peter Raleigh, for advice and for formatting the previously unpublished items 8 – 10 ; and to all the
presses and journals that have granted permission for items to be republished. Last, but far from least,
my wife Zandra has cheerfully tolerated the gestation of yet another book, and I am grateful as always.
Richard J. A. Talbert
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
January 2018