summaries
J.W. F. Voogt - The 'Reys-boeck van het rijcke Brasilien':
America on maps in pamphlets about 1600
At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th Century in The
Netherlands a great interest existed in travels and undertakings
to and in The West. The many pamphlets which appeared at
the time bear witness to that. Some of them were even il-
lustrated with maps and pictures.
One of those pamphlets, the 'Reys-boeck van het rijcke Bra
silien' from 1624, is described in detail in this article. This
'Travel book' gives concise sailing instructions for the journey
to Brazil and further describes the coast, the harbours, the
Population, plants and animals. Next to that, mention is made
of the Brazilian trade-products. It also contains historical
facts, like who sailed through the Estrecho de Magallanes,
who attempted to reach El Dorado in Northern Brazil and the
conquest of the Baia de Todosos Santos and Bahia in 1624.
Three maps, together covering the whole of the East coast of
Southern America, and three pictures are clearly meant as an
Illustration and enlivening of this text. Text, pictures and maps
form a unity.
Research into the sources upon which the composer of the
'Reys-boeck' drew, brought to light four books, written
shortly before and during the publication of the pamphlet. The
supposition that Nicolaes van Geelkercken was the Compiler,
could not be confirmed incontrovertibly.
James R. Akerman Selling maps, Selling highways: Rand
McNally's Blazed Trails'program
The Chicago-based firm of Rand McNally played a crucial role
in the promotion of automobile highways and of navigation
upon them. Its success was assured by the constant develop-
ment of new product lines and by aggressive and creative
promotion of products. In Order to seil highway maps, from
the second decade of this Century onwards, the Company was
obliged as well to take an active role in the marking of
highways. It did so through its 'Blazed Trails'program, con-
ceived by John Garrett Brink, designer of the first national
series of highway maps. Through this program the firm took
upon itself the expense of marking highways and so laid the
foundations of the numbered federal highway System formally
inaugurated in 1926. At the same time Rand McNally cu-
stomized its maps for promotional use, especially by oil com-
panies. Rand McNally's active participation in the selling of
the idea of a U.S. national highway System and of automobile
travel is suggestive of the frequently critical role that carto-
graphers and cartographic imagery can play in bringing about
changes in the landscape.
A.P. Versloot - Show me the way to go to Himmelum.
About how it is and how it should be concerning Frisian on
Dutch topographic maps
On the recent Dutch topographic maps concerning the
province of Friesland, names are nowadays rendered partly in
Frisian, partly in Dutch, in a sometimes illogical mixture. This
is caused by diverging name policies of local authorities, mana-
gerial bodies and mapping agencies. The mixture of names is
not favourable in a cartographic sense as well as no füll justice
is done to the rights of Frisian as a regional language. The
author therefore suggests to the Topographic Survey of The
Netherlands to change the policy towards unilingual Frisian
toponyms for small features and bilingual representation for
larger features and marginal information.
F.J. Ormeling - Traditional and digital atlas structures
In order to identify atlas structures, atlases are first equated to
geographicaI narratives. This will bring out a number of con-
cepts (point, unity, plot, contrast, dialogue vs description,
point of view) that are investigated in a traditional atlas con-
text. This is followed by identifying the structures that make
atlases useful tools for referencing and browsing. It is then
investigated in how far these traditional structuring functions
also work in a digital atlas environment, and whether this new
environment provides other ways of structuring that might be
relevant in an atlas context. After comparison, the
(dis)advantages of the new medium for structuring will be
discussed.
A.J. Pannekoek - Map types in the second Atlas of The
Netherlands
The second edition of the Atlas of The Netherlands, which
appeared in 20 separate volumes in the period 1984-1990, had
some basic principles which clearly differed from those of its
predecessor, the first Atlas of The Netherlands, published in
the years 1963-1981 including a Supplement). Those new
principles were: neither encyclopedia nor inventory, but con-
nexions among phenomena and a more problem-oriented
approach in which mankind is the central theme.
In this reflectory article - written by the Chairman of the
Editorial Comittee of the first edition - the maps in the
second Atlas of The Netherlands are evaluated on the basis of
these principles. It is concluded that, as far as the cartography
is concerned, the contrast between the first and the second
edition is not as fundamental as could be expected. The main
differences are the nature of the explanatory texts, the selec-
tion and order of the themes and the Organisation.
The article is structured on the basis of various map types. As
such it is also valuable for those who want to be informed on
the use and construction of these map types in the representa
tion of geographicaI information.
62
KT 1992.XVIII.3
