History atlas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912)
Europe at the time of the Celts by Abraham Ortelius (1595)
Roman Empire from the beginning of the First Punic War (264 BC) to the death of Diocletian (312) in the Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd (1923)

A history atlas is a systematic work of cartography that summarizes a fact of the past, for example an event in world history , using a series of thematic maps as an atlas .

term

The term historical atlas is clearly used in the history of cartography literature. A single card is called a history card .

Historical atlases are often referred to as historical atlases by map publishers . This term is not entirely clear, as it can also be understood as an old atlas. The case is different in English, where historical atlas always means a historical atlas . Of course, a history atlas that appeared before 1850 or 1800 can also be "old".

History of the historical atlases

An early example is the Atlas Thirty two new and accurate Maps of the Geography of the Ancients, printed in 1721 by Herman Moll (1654–1732) in London .

The historical school atlas, first published in 1877 by Friedrich Wilhelm Putzger and published to this day, paved the way for further development as a national standard work in Germany . This school atlas , which is also equipped with maps of battle orders of historical importance , with its now over 100 editions, has shaped the understanding of history for generations.

Gustav Droysen's General Historical Handbook , published by Verlag Velhagen & Klasing under the direction of Richard Andree , established itself in 1886 as a more sophisticated historical atlas with more precise topographic maps .

The new history and culture atlas from prehistoric times to the present , compiled by Hans Zeissig in collaboration with foreign specialists in 1950, from Paul List-Verlag, was given the character of a workbook for cultural history lessons.

A more modern development is the first time 1964/1966 by Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann presented dtv Atlas of world history , the historical and representational form processes found through translations worldwide distribution and in his presentation technology also influenced cartography in historical museums. In 1976, the GDR 's Communist History Atlas was published by the Central Institute for History of the Academy of Sciences in the GDR . The most comprehensive German-language historical atlas is the Great Historical World Atlas of the Bavarian School Book Publishing House in four volumes, which was published in Munich in 1953-95.

purpose

Historical atlases serve to visualize historical events, conditions and developments. In addition to the basic maps of historical national borders, the thematic map is important, for example with the representation of mineral resources and economic operations.

Typical topics on the maps of a history atlas are, for example:

  • military battles and general wars;
  • the routes of expeditions;
  • the spread of culture, such as the Gothic cathedrals;
  • Representation of population developments;
  • territorial changes, for example after a peace treaty;
  • legal conditions according to areas, such as the city rights of the Ostsiedlung or civil law in Germany before the introduction of the BGB ;
  • old postal routes with the corresponding distances calculated in days or weeks.

In addition to maps, many historical atlases also offer diagrams and other graphs, as well as examples of old map representations (such as the Tabula Peutingeriana ).

Bible atlas

A Bible atlas contains maps of the geographical and temporal space of the biblical stories, i.e. primarily the ancient Near East . In addition to geographical and political maps, this also includes other thematic maps, for example on vegetation, the spread of certain religions or the journeys of the Apostle Paul . In addition, explanatory texts, images and other graphics are often included.

Online historical atlases

literature

  • Jeremy Black: Maps and history - constructing images of the past. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven 1997, ISBN 0-300-06976-6 (English)
  • J. Dörflinger : history map . In: Ingrid Kretschmer et al. (Ed.): Lexicon on the history of cartography. From the beginning to the First World War . Deuticke, Vienna 1986. ( Cartography and its peripheral areas, Volume C), ISBN 3-7005-4562-2 , pp. 265-268
  • ders .: Historical atlases from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century. In: 400 years of Mercator - 400 years of Atlas - the whole world between two book covers, a history of the atlases. Edited by Hans Wolff. Konrad, Weißenhorn i. B. 1995. ( Exhibition catalogs / Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Volume 65), pp. 179–198
  • Walter A. Goffart: Historical atlases - the first three hundred years, 1570-1870. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago 2003, ISBN 0-226-30071-4 (English)
  • Sylvia Schraut: Mapped National History . An international comparison of historical atlases from 1860 to 1960 . Frankfurt am Main 2011.

Web links

Wikisource: Historical Atlases  - Sources and Full Texts