Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Side 325

REVUE LITTERAIRE
THE HISTORY OF DANISH CARTOGRAPHY
Publications from the Geodetic Institute I, II, III, IV, and VI
Cartography is an ancient science.
It dates far back into antiquity,
and as early as the beginning of our
era people had astonishingly correct
geographical conceptions of the Me-
diterranean and adjoining countries.
The greatest name in classical geo-
graphy is Claudius Ptolemy, who
lived at Alexandria in the second
century A. D. He collected all the
geographical knowledge of antiqui-
ty, but his work, like so much else,
was forgotten, and the attempts of
the early Middle Ages at drawing
maps was extremely primitive. So
the discovery that the classical geo-
graphers more than a thousand
years before had produced maps of
a much higher quality created an
immense sensation. Gradually, how-
ever, it was leamt that the maps of
Ptolemy, too, were imperfect, and
thus began modern cartography,
first in Italy, later in Western and
Northem Europe.
At an astonishingly early stage,
already from the 17th century, big
collections of printed maps were
published in the Netherlands,
France, Italy, and several other
countries, great publishing firms
competed for the market, and de-
veloped the drawing and printing
of maps to an increasing degree of
perfection. These publishing firms
were connected with cartographers
in the various countries, and the
rulers of these for practical, milita-
ry, and scientific reasons favoured
cartography, which thus attained to
a bloom only equalled by the pre-
sent day.
The study of the history of carto-
graphy has tempted many scholars,
and there is a copious literature on
the subject in existence, including
several magnificent works with re-
productions of early handmade and
printed maps. Maps and manu-
scripts hitherto unheeded, however,
are now and then brought to light,
partly because in certain periods
maps were considered military
secrets, which must not be brought
to the knowledge of the public.
It is a natural and attractive task
for Danish science to elucidate this
development as regards our own
country, partly in order to illustrate
the development of the map of Den-
mark, partly in order to see the con-
nexion between international carto-
graphy and the contributions of Da-
nish scholars in this field. A large
number of scholars, such asEdv.Ers-
lev, P. Lauridsen, Johannes Knud-
sen, A. A. Bjombo, Carl S. Petersen,
and Gudmund Schiitte, have dis-
cussed various questions belonging
here, but hitherto there has been no