Catalogue des cartes nautiques manuscrites sur parchemin, 1300-1700. Cartes hollandaises. LaCartographie de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales, 1593-1743; La Mappemonde de PetrusPlancius gravée par Josua van den Ende, 1604, d'après l'unique exemplaire de la BibliothèqueNationale de Paris by Marcel DestombesReview by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 38, No. 3/4 (Feb., 1948), p. 262Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/226137 .

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262 Reviews work of the Department of Agriculture that many Americans speak of the much ballyhooed Five-Year Plans in Soviet agriculture, in which millions of peasants were liquidated or deported, as great and novel achievements, or even experi- ments, in the application of science to rural wel- fare and progress. In addition, every year sees new and hopelessly trite books on the relation of science to society whose authors would gain considerably from a study of this volume. As Mr Harding points out this book affords merely a bird's eye view of the vast record. The true relationship between science and society is to be seen in the actual application of the experiments Mr Harding so lucidly and modestly presents. The average American farm and that farmer's home have more to tell on this subject than hundreds of the smoke-filled rooms in which our radical intelligentsia pontificates on these issues. To do justice to a realistic study of the problem one would also have to learn something about that unique experiment in adult education under a democracy represented by the Extension Service.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the De- partment can be as proud of the way in which this tale is told as of the story it unfolds. The author has been a member of the Department since I9IO and mirrors its fine spirit in style and manner. Without bombast or braggadocio, in simple, concise, matter-of-fact language, this grand romance of science in the service of agri- culture is presented for the first time to a callous public. Mr Harding had a great and scholarly task to perform, and acquitted himself as nobly as the workers he speaks of.

Mark Graubard

MARCEL DESTOMBES: Catalogue des cartes nautiques manuscrites sur parchemin, 1300-

z700. Cartes hollandaises. La Cartographie de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales, z593- z743. 99 pp., frontispiece, 4 pls. Saigon: 1941.

: La Mappemonde de Petrus Plancius gravie par Josua van den Ende, z604, d'apras l'unique exemplaire de la Bibliotheque Na- tionale de Paris. ii + 51 pp. (quarto) i fig., 14 maps. (Publications de la Soci6t6 de Geo- graphie de Hanoi). Hanoi: 1944.

In 1934, the author of these books conceived an ambitious undertaking: the preparation of a catalogue raisonne of all the MS nautical maps anterior to the eighteenth century. We have ad- mirable catalogues of atlases and printed maps, e. g., those issued by the Library of Congress, compiled by the late Philip Lee Phillips for the Library of Congress (4 vols., 1909-20); in order to establish the history of geographical discov- eries on a sound basis, however, one should pay attention in the first place to the MS maps, for the engraved ones were always behind the times, and new discoveries being trade secrets of the greatest value the Dutch cartographers of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the master cartographers of their time, were not permitted

to publish them. The success of Mr Destombes' investigations may be measured as follows. In I882, G. Uzielli listed some 350 maps, largely Italian; Mr Destombes has catalogued already i6oo items (8,ooo MS maps) and has examined two thirds of them. His attention was restricted to European maps on parchment (the maps on paper being less important, and relatively few in number), of the period 1300 to 1700. In the eighteenth century, the publication of maps was already so generalized and systematized in vari- ous countries that cartographic secrets could hardly be kept; hence the MS maps become much less interesting.

The catalogue of Dutch MS maps is the first to appear, it includes 272 items. Says the author:

Les listes qui suivent constituent donc r6ellement la cartographie secrete des decouvertes et contiennent la substance meme de l'exp6rience des voyages au long- cours hollandais du XVIe et du XVII siecle. Avec ces r&cits de voyages sous les yeux, on suit mieux le sens de la cartographie nautique du XVII siecle. Le Siecle d'Or des Pays-Bas, qui est celui de ses grandes navigations et de la conquete de son domaine colonial, est aussi celui de sa cartographie, dont la reputation mondiale s'est fondde jusqu'ici sur les atlas de cartes imprimees qui ne consti- tuent que le c6te ext6rieur et public du fonds original. Les documents dcrits ci-dessous etaient pour la plupart inconnus jusqu'a ce jour; c'est A eux que pourrait revenir maintenant l'attention des historiens, plus qu'aux docu- ments imprimes auxquels ils ont servi de base.

The maps are briefly described, some of them reproduced; they are classified by types and indexed in various ways. The chronological bib- liography is itself an excellent tool; it begins with Jomard (I839) and ends with W. Canne- burg (1938). The maps were localized in many European collections, also in Japan, Australia, and the United States. The only American col- lection referred to, however, is that of the His- panic Society, and there are others.

Mr Destombes' second publication is restricted to a single map, the world map drawn by the Dutchman, Pieter Platevoet (1552-I622), alias Petrus Plancius.* Plancius' Universal map of 1592 was described by Thomas Blundeville in London 1594.t

The map of 1592 was lost until 1903 when Van Ortroy discovered a mutilated copy of it in Valencia. The mappemonde now published (in 12 leaves) and fully described and discussed by Mr Destombes was found by him in the Biblio- theque Nationale. It was engraved by Josua Van den Ende, who was generally working for Willem Jansz Blaeu; the author concludes that it was probably Plancius' map as revised by Blaeu.

Both works have been beautifully printed in Indo-China. They are a credit to the printers and to the Geographical Society of Hanoi as well as to the author. G. S.

* About whom and his relationship with Stevin, see Isis (2i, 254, 279).

tIn Isis (2Y, 254), the date of the map was given as 1594 because of a confusion with the book describing it. The date is 1592.

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