Acity mapis alarge-scalethematic mapof acity(or part of a city) created to enable the fastest possibleorientationin anurban space.The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduced to generally understoodsymbology.
Depending upon its target group or market, a city map will include not only the city'stransport network,but also other important information, such as city sights or public institutions.
Content and design
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The scale of a city map is usually between 1:10,000 and 1:25,000. Densely settled downtown areas will sometimes be partly drawn in a larger scale, on a separate detail map.
In addition to linear true to scale maps, there are also maps with variable scale, for example where the scale gradually increases towards the city centre (aerial photography,andphotogrammetrymethods).
Central to the information provided by a city map is thestreetnetwork, including its street names (often supplemented by at least a selection of individual house numbers), along with buildings, parks and waterways. Streets andpoints of interestare usually also listed in alegendor register, locating objects on amap gridon the map. Important places such as administrative buildings, cultural institutions, attractions, etc. may be highlighted with the assistance ofpictograms.The map may also be complemented by representations ofpublic transportfacilities.
History
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Ancient Near East
editAs early as the time of theAncient Near East,clay tabletswere being produced with scaled, graphical representations of cities. Excavations of theSumeriancity ofNippur[1]brought to light a fragment of an approximately 3,500-year-old city map, which is sometimes referred to as the oldest known city map.[2]The clay tablet depicts the temple ofEnlil,a city park, the city wall including its gates, along with a canal and the riverEuphrates.The individual objects on this map were already labelled, in a Sumeriancuneiform.[3]
Late Middle Ages
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In manuscripts and early printed books of theLate Middle Ages,cities are often shown in profile, or viewed from an elevated standpoint.Nautical chartsof that time sometimes depict partly stylized cityscapes drawn in pictogram form - for example inCristoforo Buondelmonti'sLiber insularum archipelagi(Book of Islands),[4]from the year 1422.
TheNuremberg Chronicle,which first appeared in 1493, is one of the most important collections of city views of the late Middle Ages, with over 100 such illustrations. Nevertheless, panoramas like this one, or the one inBernhard von Breydenbach'sTraveloguefrom 1483, had more narrative or representative functions.
Illustrated in these works are the local conditions and relevant characteristics - such as ports, magnificent buildings, walls, etc. - as a background for highlighting historical descriptions or economic benefits of the city. On the other hand, less emphasis was placed on accuracy: in the Nuremberg Chronicle, merely one quarter of the city views represented the actual appearance of the subject city, and some individual images were even used simultaneously to represent several different cities.[5]
Renaissance
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In the 16th century, the artists and scholars of theRenaissancehad extensive knowledge of mathematicalperspectivesandprojections.This knowledge also affected the work of cartographers and the production of cityscapes (especially in Italy). A key innovation was that the city was no longer portrayed simply from an imaginary or real perspective, but drawn initially as a two-dimensional map, and then, using a process of accurate perspective drawing, transformed into a three-dimensional image.[6][7]An early example of a geometrically exact and highly detailed work of this kind is the city map of Venice created byJacopo de' Barbariin around 1500.[8]
Whereas the illustrations of the late Middle Ages are usually still simple small-formatwoodcuts,an increasingly common process from 1500 onwards was the creation of prints from hugewoodcutsandwoodblocks.Jacopo de' Barbari's map of Venice was already as large as 139 centimetres (55 in) x 282 centimetres (111 in), and consisted of six individual panels. From the middle of the 16th century, thecopperplateprocess began to compete with the woodcut, and allowed far more refined and detailed illustrations.
19th Century pocket atlases
editOne of the first city pocket atlases, and the first pocket atlas of London, was "Collins' Illustrated Atlas of London" published in 1854 and drawn and engraved byRichard Jarman.[9]
See also
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References
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edit- ^Nippur - Sacred City Of EnlilArchived2014-01-06 at theWayback Machine.Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Retrieved on 24 May 2010.
- ^J. B. Harley, David Woodward:The History of Cartography, Volume 1: Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean,Univ of Chicago Press 1987,ISBN0-226-31633-5.
- ^Samuel Noah Kramer:Der Stadtplan von Nippur, der älteste Stadtplan der Welt.In Helmut Uhlig:Die Sumerer.Lübbe, Bergisch-Gladbach 1992.ISBN3-404-64117-5.(in German)
- ^Cristoforo Buondelmonti: Map of Constantinople,fromLiber insularum Archipelagi,1422.
- ^Lutz Philipp Günther:Die bildhafte Repräsentation deutscher Städte: Von den Chroniken der Frühen Neuzeit zu den Websites der Gegenwart.Böhlau 2009,ISBN3-412-20348-3,p. 38.(in German)
- ^Denis Cosgrove:Mappings.Reaktion Books 1999.ISBN1-86189-021-4.p. 98 ff
- ^Arthur Groos:Topographies of the early modern city.V&R Unipress 2008.ISBN3-89971-535-7.p. 198 ff
- ^Jacopo de ’ Barbari: Perspective Plan of Venice,1500.
- ^Introduction by Prof.H. J. DyostoCollins' Illustrated Atlas of London,1973 edition, Leicester University Press,ISBN0-7185-5012-9:statement that it is the first pocket atlas is on page 10
External links
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Media related toHistorical city mapsat Wikimedia Commons