ED. IM HOF1
SWISS CARTOGRAPHY, A SURVEY
The beginnings of Swiss cartography reach back to the late 15th Century. The new
cultural impulse of Humanism freed the human spirit from the bonds of mediaeval
mysticism, directing it towards more real, earthly matters. At that time four outstanding
events were particularly to further the interest in geography, namely the recovery of
the most famous map of antiquity, Ptolemy's atlas, dating from 150 A.D., the invention
of printing by Gutenberg, and above all the circumnavigation of Africa and the dis-
covery of America.
In 1495 the Zürich physician Konrad Türst drew the first Swiss map and forty
years later, in 1538, the Glarus chronicler Aegidius Tschudi published his famous map
of Switzerland.
Tschudi's feat greatly stimulated regional cartography. In 1545 Sebastian Müller,
the Basle humanist, published a map of the Valais, the first to be drawn of a canton,
and in 1548 there followed Johannes Stumpf's Siviss Chronicle. The latter consisted
of various maps of different districts which, in 1554, were combined in an atlas. Among
the multitude of maps issued in the following decades we may point out two: Jost
Murers map of the canton of Zürich (1566), the most delightful woodcut in Swiss
cartography, and the very complete map of the Bernese territory by Thomas Schöpf
(1576), the first Swiss map to be engraved on copper.
At the beginning of the 17th Century the 'Zürich School of Surveying' was to have
considerable influence on the cartographic survey of the country. New improved in-
y struments were built and the plane-table process and other progressive methods
developed.
Most interested in these new achievements was Hans Konrad Gyger (1599-1674),
Zürich surveyor, glass-stainer and later bailiff, who in 1667 crowned his life's work
with the large map (5 m2) of the canton of Zürich that was far superior to the older
regional maps. Gyger spread a wide mesh triangulation net over the territory surveyed
and for the first time replaced the traditional oblique view of the mountains by a
very complete and most artistic, extremely natural relief of the earth's surface seen at
right angle from above.
A renowned contemporary of his was Matthäus Merian of Basle. His Topographia
Helvetiae, published in 1642, includes a wonderful collection of maps engraved on
copper, plans and views of Swiss towns, Castles, monasteries and landscapes.
As early as the beginning of the 18th Century the Zürich physicist Johann Jakob
Scheuchzer made his first observations of the rock strata folds in the Alps, sketching
them on his maps. Great mathematicians contributed their learning to surveying and
cartography. Leonhard Euler of Basle (1707-1783) achieved decisive improvements
in the field of instrument optics (achromatic lenses). In 1771 the Genevese engineer
du Carla proved the value of contour lines in the rendering of an imaginary island.
Before him Cruquius, a Dutchman, and the two Frenchmen Buache and Millet de
Mureau had made similar experiments which, however, remained unnoticed at the time.
Prompted by the varied nature of the country and above all due to the discovery of the
Alps for tourists the Swiss maps were greatly improved during the 18th and 19th
centuries when a multitude of new means of cartographic expression were devised.
En* Imhof, Dr h.c., Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich.
Samenvatting van een voordracht met lichtbeeiden, gehouden door Prof, dr Ed. Imhof op de
Nederlandse Kartografendag, 7 november 1959 te Delft.
K.N.A.G., LXXVII
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