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Map – Documented History of Exploration of Siberia exemplified by Selected West – European 16th and 17th Century Maps



Lucyna Szaniawska

National Library of Poland

I graduated from the Warsaw University Department of Geography and Regional Studies in 1976, then completed postgraduate African Studies with thesis “Map as Source of Documented Knowledge of Africa in the Days of Renaissance”. Since 1975 I have been with the Department of Cartography of National Library of Poland, since 2001 as head of the Scientific Description Unit. Until now I have published 6 books – monographs or catalogues and 60 articles. I lecture in cartography history and do editorial work.

 

Map-Documented History of Exploration of Sibir exemplified by Selected West-European 16th and 17th Century Maps

Lucyna Szaniawska

National Library of Poland

 

From the dawn of humanity, the migration of ethnic groups looking for more suitable life conditions resulted in exploration of surrounding lands and seas, and expansion of cultures through interaction of the contacting groups. Peoples arriving in areas inhabited by other peoples acquired geographical knowledge about new, unknown geographical horizons. For example, merchants traveling to distant lands acquired some information about peoples inhabiting areas on the confines of the explored lands. This second-hand information was often deceptive, but taken with lack of criticism sometimes became part of the general geographical knowledge adding color and some elements of horror.

The constantly expanding, due to migration and travel, geographical horizon handed down from generation to generation was reflected in the records of historians and geographers of the ancient Greece. Part of this knowledge, accumulated for centuries in written form, survived until the Age of Discovery and, translated into Latin, became commonly known as enrichment of the 15th century codes, books containing maps and collections of maps published in the form of atlases. Contemporary popularizers of the knowledge of the world referred to various ancient authors’ writings, but most often (from 1475 to 1730 over 50 editions) to the works of Alexandria geographer Claudius Ptolemy (approx.80 – 160 A.D.). Thanks to him, in the 15th century, on the geographical maps there appeared and remained for a few centuries notions and names dating back to the 5th century B.C. and the previous centuries.

A good example of such a procedure – passing on for centuries unchanged geographical information – turned out to be information of distant (from the Mediterranean civilization’s point of view) lands of the north-eastern Asia. In the present article, in order to simplify matters, the lands will be called Sibir in the seventeenth and eighteenth-century meaning of the word. Russian geographer Semen Ulianovič Remiezov, the author of an excellent atlas of Sibir called Čertežnaja kniga Sibiri sostavlennaja tobolskim synom bojarskim Semenom Remezowym v 1701 godu used this name with reference to extensive grounds to the east of contemporary Moscow State, reaching through north-eastern Asia up to the Pacific. Though Sibir is a very broad notion, defined in many different ways, Remiezov’s interpretation seems very adequate for the purposes of this paper.

The ancient geographers’ concepts and methods of description of the explored world were to be complemented by future explorers’ often untrue to reality, understanding of the range of lands and seas. The ancients’ ecumene was considerably enlarged to the north and north-east, though initially the process did not proceed quite correctly. It took five centuries for the Arctic regions to gain a proper cartographic representation.

To the well-rooted Sibirean names dating back to the ancient times the Age of Discovery added newly-coined names introduced by explorers of unknown coasts and lands.

 

Ancient Greeks’ Knowledge of Sibirean Regions as Reproduced
on Maps Published in the 15th and 16th Centuries

 

For the purposes of this paper, namely to identify ancient physiographic names of Sibir and its ethnic groups, historical material included in The Studies of the History of the Slavs, Poland and Rus in the Middle Ages by professor Henryk Łowmianski, published by Adam Mickiewicz’s University I Poznań in 1986 has been used.

The author discusses the origins and evolution of the notions referring to the region in question in a very detailed way. Other authors, e.g., Joachim Lelewel, treat spatial references of particular names in a different way. However, in the present paper, we will not be concerned with the way names have been interpreted by subsequent researchers – the mere fact of occurrence of such in ancient written records will be sufficient. The actual cartographic interpretation as well as editorial work was done by Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D., thus allowing us to discuss the occurrences of specific geographical names in specific places.

In ancient times the best known region of western Sibir was Scythia. Everything situated to its north-east existed only in imagination, and imagination was something that writers did not lack. Łowmianski in his work mentions – after Herodotus of Halicarnassus (5th century A.D.), Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 A.D.), and Pomponius Mela (1st century A.D.) – Scythia as a steppe political organization formed by free Scythians and the subject, mainly agricultural peoples.

Scythia arose in authority on the Black Sea (Pontum Mare) between the lower Danube (Ister fl.) and the Sea of Azov (Meotyde) as well as the lower Don River (Tanais fl.). The chief people of the Scythian empire were the tribal-nomadic people called Scythians. In the east, according to Herodotus, they abutted on Geleni, Budyni (between the Don and Volga rivers) and Sarmatians. Further to the east, on the way to the Altai and Ural Mountains, Herodotus mentions the Tyssageci culture spreading to the north of Budyni; further, the hunting people of Irkovi or Jurgovi (on the Vyatka River) who probably Hungarians descended from. Beyond them, in the east, Scythians (by the Bielaja River), who reached that place in their wonderings having separated from the main Pontic stock. Further to the east, at the foot of high mountains, the bold-headed foraging people of Argipai (on the Ufa River) as well as Issedoni on the other side of the Ural Mountains (on the Iset River). Scythians penetrated to the east and south causing conflicts with Issedoni. Regions to the south of Issedoni were inhabited by Massagetoni, and to the east, next to the Altai Mountains – Arimasponi. The knowledge of the land beyond that region, to the east and north, was very limited since, as Herodotus explains, Hellenic merchants did not get that far.

Another Greek historian, posterior to Herodotus, Eforos (4th century B.C.) defined the notion of Scythians as all the peoples living on the northern periphery of the explored world, while Indi were placed by Eforos on the eastern periphery. Pliny the Elder regards the peoples of north Asia as Scythians and, respectively, the Arctic Ocean as the Scythian Ocean. Pomponius Mela divided the Scythian state into two regions – the one situated in the north of Europe and Asia and on the Pontus Sea. Strabo of Amaseia (approx. 50 B.C. – 25 A.D.) placed Scythians next to Sauromatians to the north of the Sea of Azov, and marked the regions reaching as far as East Seas and India as belonging to them. Publius Cornelius Tacitus (approx. 55 – 120 A.D.) transferred Scythians from the Black Sea steppes beyond the Caspian Sea (Hyrkany).

The youngest of the ancient scholars, Claudius Ptolemy in his Geography (footnote: Greek Geographike hyphegesis  i.e. Guide to Geography was written in 160 A.D. For the first time the text was translated into Latin in 1406 by Jacobo d’Algeri of Scarperia in Toscany, thus gaining popularity. The proof of that we find in the fact that 40 manuscript copies and 44 editions elaborated before 1730 and containing a set of 27 old maps were preserved) demarcated for Scythians vast territories from the lower course of the Volga River (Rha fl.) in the west, to China in the east. 15th and 16th century editors of the maps elaborated according to the data taken from Ptolemy’s works drew the state of Scythia on two regional maps: Tabula Asiae VII and Tabula Asiae VIII. Ptolemy filled the territories with, for the most part, fictitous names thus making the work of future researchers and map editors very difficult. The Scythians state was divided into two regions separated by Imaos (the Latin name: Imaus) mountain range running from the north to the south, (footnote: the names appearing in brackets in this paragraph are taken from the Tabula Asiae VII and Tabula Asiae VIII published in Geography and Cosmography by Sebastian Münster in Basel in 1540. Whereas names and texts taken from old map in the whole article are made bold.) calling them respectively Scythia Intra Imaum and Scythia Extra Imaum. In the area of Scythia Intra Imaum, north of 55 parallel, the Alexandrian geographer mentions numerous tribes, such as Alani Scythians (Alani Scythe), Sueboni (Suebeni), Alanorsoni (Alanorsi), Saitianoni (Saitiani), Sueboni (Suebi), Mologeni (Mologeni), Zaraci (Zarate), Sasoni (Sasones), Paniardoni (Paniardi). In the area of Scythia Extra Imaum, on its eastern periphery, Ptolemy describes the land of Serika (Serica), that is the land of silk. Therefore it may be concluded that to Ptolemy’s best knowledge Scythia Extra Imaum was on Silk Road leading to China (Sina Regio). Here Ptolemy describes over a dozen lands, among others, Kasia (Casia Regio), Achasa (Chatse Scythe), Tarfunoni (Throani). North of Serika land he places fictious names of the tribes: Antropofagi (Atropophagi), Hippofagi (Hippophagi), Sizygoni (Sizyges), Annibi (Annibi), Garinajoni (Garinaei), etc. Sebastian Münster, a Basel editor, completed the names of the tribes with a drawing of two natives (probably Antropophagi) standing by the table and preparing a meal of the enemy’s flesh.

In annotations included in 8 volumes of Ptolemy’s Geography, the author indicates the source of information being merchants traveling along Asian trails, thus justifying the division and the use of many exotic names. Łowmianski’s understanding of this remark is that Ptolemy acquired the data from merchants travelling between Kuybyshev (former Samara), across the Mugodzhar Hills (Noroska Mons), and Tashkent. Under the circumstances, it seems odd that the description of areas bordering the trail contained so many essential mistakes. The fact that Ptolemy as well as the Renaissance editors of the maps joined the Caspian and the Aral Seas into one body of water resulted in disappearance of the Aral Sea and, consequently, depicting the Syr-daria and Amu-daria Rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea. To the south of this sea the Ural (Dayk) River was drawn, and at the foot of Mugodzar (Noroska Mons) the Norossa and Norosba tribes were placed.

The Scythians inhabited territories extending from the lower course of the Volga River (Rha fl.) in the west to the China in the east Ptolemy separated from Europe with the area of Sarmatia Asiatica ( or Sarmatia in Asia), (footnote: names in brackets in this paragraph are quoted after the map Asiae Tabula II in Cl. Ptolemaei Alexandrini, Geographiae Libri Octo edited by Gerhard Mercator in Duisburg in 1584). The idea to substitute the eastern part of Scythie Pontes by Sarmatia in Asia was unknown among other ancient writers, but it was accepted by the Renaissance cartographers, including Nicolas Germanus (d.1490) and Gerhard Mercator (d.1594). It expressed the view that Sarmatians controlled the Black Seas steppes in the regions lying north and north-east of the Black Sea, i.e., between the lower and middle courses of the Don and Volga Rivers (Tanais fl. and Rha fl.). This way the border between Asia and Europe was demarcated on the Don. The border ran to the north along 85th meridian reckoned east from the Pillars of Hercules, i.e., the Strait of Gibraltar (approx. 80° from the Greenwich meridian, while the Ural Mountaines run at 60° longitude). To the north of 55th parallel it is difficult to find any authentic-sounding names, and so we can see: Hyperborean Mountains (Hyperborei Montes) inhabited by peoples of the same name. Further to the south we see Modokoni (Modoce), Hippofagi (Hippophagi), Sarmate next to Zakaci (Zacate) and Suardeni. The drainage-basin of the Kama River was inhabited by Perierbidzi (Perierbidi gens magna). The latter were identified by Łowmianski with Budyni who were well-known in the literary tradition. On Mercator’s map within the meanders of the Volga River (Rha fl.) and south of its tributaries Rha fluvius occidentalis and orientali we can find Ftejrofagi (Phithirophagi) and Materi accompanied by the drawings of shepherds.

The mediaeval cartography did not contribute considerably to the knowledge of the above-discussed regions. The maps which were created then were rather philosophical concepts than the representations of the Europeans’ knowledge of the Earth. The maps that were drawn in those days were mostly circular or elliptic and contained very little geographical information. Frequently, they were used as decorations of religious codes or church interiors. Their content was entirely in accordance with the dogmas of the Christian faith. The typical example of such maps is a map of the world of 1225 attached to a code and called Psalter mappemundi as well as Theodorius Macrobius’s map of the world published in Venice in 1500. None of the maps of that epoch presented Huns’ or Tartars’ migrations.

Therefore, until the Age of Discovery, Sibir remained a region of which little was known. Its maps bore only more or less deformed notions and names taken from the ancient sources. It was not until the second half of the 16th century when gradual exploration of the boundless areas of northern Asia was started that the fancy names were substituted with newly-coined ones. Exploration and colonization of western Sibir took place in two parallel ways – by land and by sea. The present article will deal only with the 16th century initiation of exploration of the northern coasts of Sibir and the changes that were made in the area of geographical information of Sibirean lands on the maps of the world and Asia.

 

Representation of Sibirean Coasts on the Maps of the World and Asia from the Beginning of the 16th Century

 

From the beginning of the 16th century intensive discoveries of successive islands and stretches of American coastline were accompanied by the search for a northern passage from Europe to India and China. Thus Sibir and its coast excited more and more interest. There arose the question of the possibility of sailing on the Arctic waters. The maps drawn in the first half of the 16th century confirmed the existence of the big body of water which, so it seemed, made such expeditions possible. The map elaborated by Martin Waldseemüller (1470 – 1521) and published for the first time in 1507 as an illustration for Cosmographiae Introductio combines the knowledge of the ancient scholars with the information acquired during exploratory expeditions of the Renaissance. This co-existence of geographical data is symbolized by inclusion of portraits of the Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy and the Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, who discovered South America in 1497. (Footnote: Waldseemüller in “Cosmographiae Introductio” explains the fact of naming the New World after Vespucci: “a quarter (of the world) which was discovered by Amerigo Vespucci… while both Europe and Asia were named after women, I could not see why this object should be called otherwise than Amerige, that is ( Mr.) Amerigo’s land or America”). The map confirms the possibility of safe travelling across the northern waters where only small, single islands were marked. The western stretch of the Sibirean coastline is distinguishable thanks to a peninsula drawn in place of Novaya Zemlya and projecting markedly out into the sea. However, the Taimyr Peninsula as well as the islands to its north are marked fairly correctly. The entire coastline is displaced by at least 10 degrees to the south. The eastern coasts descend to the south along a long curve. As a result, the most easterly lands of Asia can be found on the Tropic of Cancer. It is a very characteristic representation of Eastern Sibir which was repeatedly adopted by many 16th century cartographers.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497 – 1543), while elaborating a map of the world to be included in his and Sebastian Münster’s work called Novum Orbis Regionum containing information brought from exploratory expeditions by Joann Huttich and Simeon Grynaeus and edited in Basel in 1532, did not draw any islands on the north seas. But he put on the map of Sibir other imaginary elements of the coastline – the northern periphery of Eurasia drawn in a specific way. The coastline in the west is bounded by the Scandinavian peninsula called Septentrio. In the east there is a peninsula with an inscription Scythia at its base. The most northerly point of the peninsula reaches beyond latitude 80 degrees. Between them there is a sea, called Mare Congelatum, projecting deep (latitude 67 degrees) into the mainland. On the far-east coast, longitude 210 degrees east Ferro, next to an unnamed peninsula, there is an inscription Regio Cassiae. Further to the east the land turns south. Such a representation of Sibir, with minor changes, was repeatedly found on 17th century maps. The geographical contents of Sibir’s inland, consisting of data provided by late mediaeval authors, were left intact by Holbein.

Sebastian Münster, working in cooperation with Henrich Petri (1508 – 1579) drew in 1540 a map of the world where the northern coastline of Asia ran differently. The Map, included in subsequent editions of Geography and Cosmography elaborated by Münster had twenty editions altogether, thus its influence on the knowledge of the lands presented in there was considerable. The same authors elaborated, in 1540 as well, a mop called India Extrema XXIII Nova Tabula representing Sibir with analogous geographical data. The coastline of northern Asia is little diversified on both maps. Its northern extremes in western Sibir reach latitude 80 degrees and gradually, at the longitude 165 degrees east Ferro reach longitude 70 degrees. Most of the coastline, up to longitude 240 degrees Ferro reaches latitude 70 degrees and is characterized by rather small bays. The body of water reaching up to the Pole was called Oceanum Hyperboreus.

In 1531, in Paris, Fine Orance (1494 – 1555), a French mathematician and cartographer, published a map of the world called Nova, et integra universi orbis description. For the first time the author used his very original representation in the shape of two hearts. Three years later he drew a map of the world called Recens, et integra orbis description in one-hearted shape when he marked more geographical names. Some of the names are directly related to an expedition led by a conquistador Herman Fernand Cortez (1485 – 1547) as well as a voyage led by a Portuguese sailor Fernand Magellan (1479 – 1521). On both maps Fine Orance repeated his risky procedure of combining the explored lands of the New World with eastern part of Asia. In this way he obtained a vast land surrounding the waters of the Mare Glaciele Sea, with Sibir spanning over 260 degrees of longitude. Following the coast from Scandinavia to the east we can find the names: Obscura Regio (an inscription at the base of a peninsula, possibly Kanin), Blaci (the name of a people inhabiting the base of the peninsula), Hungaria Magna (an inscription, to the east of some mountains, possibly the Urals), Moal (the name of people), to its south Cataia and Tataria Magna nearby; at base of the next peninsula the inscription Melrihfi ho. Syl[va] – possibly the name of woodlands. To the south of Arctic Circle on both sides of the “technical” cut of the cartographic grid there is the inscription Desertum Blor and, to its north, a peninsula inhabited by a people called Ruchani. The area extending across longitude 50 degrees lacks geographical names, and the names found further in the east are connected with the New World. At latitude between 30 and 40 degrees there is a peninsula described as Terra FLoryda, and to its north, along the meridian, Terre Francesca nup(!) lustrate. This huge land bounded by a big peninsula named Baccaleae Regio and nearly reaches Greenland, here named Gronelant. The mistake of joining Asia and North America into one land was very soon corrected by the next cartographers, however, the other inaccuracies drawn by Orance occurred on maps for as long as until mid-17th century. This imaginative French cartographer placed the North Pole on an Island and surrounded it with some more islands – on the 1531 map there were four, and on the 1534 map – five big ones. And on the seas further to the east he added many more smaller islands. This way the northern waters became dotted with islands.

In 1550, an Italian publisher Antonio Salamanca (approx. 1500 – 1562) published in Rome an unnamed map with inscription: Quam hic Videa orbis imagine[m] lector… circu[m] ferebantur esse America Sarmatiqac India testantur... The author was too eager to conform to Orance’s intentions and transformed most of the northern waters into land connected with Asia, leaving only a small bay and an inlet separating the land from America. In this way the north Pole became a part of Asia. In addition, he put the names Scythia, Sarmatia and Tartaria on lands drawn on the other side of the Pole in relation to actual Asia. Nowadays such a cartographic representation seems to be extremely misleading.

Abraham Ortelius (1528 – 1598), an Antwerp cartographer and publisher, while reproducing geographical data found in Fine Orance’s map of 1564 decided to isolate four islands and drew them as if they surrounded the waters around the North Pole. On the map named Typus orbis terrum (scale 1:80 000 000) published for the first time in Theatrum Orbis Terranium in 1750, Ortelius did not name the islands, by which he probably implied that their representation is hypothetical. Although Ortelius must have had some doubts, he could not have foreseen that other cartographers would copy his interpretation for as long as over half a century.

Ortelius’s competitor, Gerard Mercator (d.1594), considered to be the greatest European cartographer, on the map published by his grandson Rumold (1545 – 1599) in an atlas of 1595 called Septentrionalium Terrarium descriptio (scale 1:40 000 000) interpreted Fine Orance’s drawing of the polar surroundings in a slightly different way than the Antwerp cartographer. He drew four islands close to each other, separated only by rivers which closed the access to the Pole. In accordance with legends, the North Pole, named Polus Arcticus, was pictured as an enormous rock placed on the lake. The drawings of the northern coasts Asiae Pars were closer to reality. While the Taimyr Peninsula – Tabin prom. Plinio was made bigger than it actually is and on the map takes a considerable part of the Sibirean coast, in the north it reaches correct latitude 77 degrees. The continents are separated by a mysterious strait called El streto de Anian, and on Americae Pars it appears as Anian regnum. Nova Zemla is composed here of two neighboring islands, but the mouth of Oby flu., i.e., the Ob River, was marked correctly. However, the map of Asia Asia ex magna orbis terre descriptione (scale1:25 000 000) elaborated by Rumold Mercator, lacks island of Nova Zemla. Tazata insula as well as an unnamed peninsula to its south could be recognized as the Taimyr Peninsula together with Severnaja Zemlja islands, which constituted a natural dam for eastbound ships. On the same map Sibirean lands to the east of the Lean River were presented as north-twisted “enormous peninsula” reaching latitude 76 degrees. Northern seas surrounding the coasts of Sibir were closed with lands and jointly called Oceanus Scythicus qui et mare Tabin. On the third map of Orbis Terrae compendiosa descriptio signed by Rumold and dated 1595, presenting eastern Sibir’s lands, “enormous peninsula” is basically drawn in a similar way, but its northern area are inhabited by Mongul peoples, while in the map of Asia those people are marked lower and, on the coast, a Bargu people was added. Also the northern waters are called Mare Tabin, The name Noua Zemla appears on the southern promontory of one of the big islands of the polar basin, separated by a mountain range from its interior inhabited by people measuring 4 feet in height (footnote: Pygmei 4 pedes longi hic habitat). Big differences in the way the same geographical objects are presented in the very same atlas prove that the editorial work was not very thorough, as we would say today.

Ultimately, things were made clear by Theodore de Bry (1528 – 1598), a London engraver and publisher specializing in publications dealing with exploratory expeditions. On his unnamed map of 1599, in place of The North Antarctica, de Bry put the name Terra Septentrionalis Incognita, thus removing seas from the circumpolar region. Between 80 and 70 degree of latitude he drew an unnamed water strip which, on the south, was bounded by northern coasts, also of Sibir. Because his map was rather schematic, there are not too many names on the region in question. There are only three named areas: Mongol, Tataria and Cathaio. In spite of these flaws, de Bry’s map was more correct than the previous ones, namely, the coastline of Africa and both Americas was altered according to the information provided by travellers such as Thomas Cavendish (who sailed around the world in 1568 – 1588) and Francis Drake (who sailed around the world in 1577 – 1580)

Another map of the world, elaborat...

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