Stuck together

(Click on the map to enlarge.)

16 November 2010 - The Atlas der Neederlanden is a collection of maps from different periods, different sizes, on different kinds of paper, bound and joined in a collection consisting of nine volumes.

The three pictures above come from the ninth volume, the only volume that is a a fairly deplorable state. Folds, tears, some maps aren't attached to the binder any more. It is still not decided if this volume will survive as a volume; it might be decided to take all the maps out of the binder and store them unfolded.

Geographically speaking, Volume #9 is not exactly uniform either. It has early-nineteenth century maps of the Netherlands and Belgium during the French occupation (1795 - 1813), and maps of Dutch colonies and trade posts in the Far East: Java, Ceylon, Ambon, China, Korea, Japan, South Africa, the Caribbean area, Suriname.

The pictures show how the maps were stored. A binder consists of front, back and spine, and a 'book block' consisting of a couple of flyleaves and a number of long paper strips to which the maps are attached with glue. Sometimes the map was attached by gluing it directly on a strip (picture 1), sometimes the map was glued on another piece of paper, that was glued to the strip (picture 2).

There are also strips that have no maps attached to them (picture 3). Sometimes this was done to give the (folded, thus thicker than one layer of paper) maps some room to breathe, so to speak. Or there weren't enough maps to put in the binder, as is the case in volume nr 9. Perhaps some room was reserved for future additions that never came.

Picture 1 is a map of the plantations of Suriname and Berbice, measured in Surinamese Miles of eleven hundred Rhineland Rods (a Rhineland rod is 3,767 meters, about 12 feet) and in 'Nautical miles or leagues in a grade'. A league is a measure that varies by country. It was originally the distance that you could walk in an hour which is about 3 miles or 5 km.

Picture 2 is the 'Gulf of Mexico and of the American Islands. By Mr. Bellin, Maritime Engineer'. The explanatory text is in French and Dutch, but the names on the islands and cities on the map are in French, and the distances are measured in French nautical miles (5555 meter, not to be confused with the English nautical mile of 1853 meter).
The days of a uniform measuring system had not yet arrived.