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'LIncVIt In Isto MonasterIo reLIgIosVs fr. LanDeLInVs bIeheLer IbI professVs' (try it out for yourself and check at the end of this webpage)
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| Many more
cartographic chronograms must exist. Keep a look out and you may well find one. |
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Most chronograms are in Latin and date from the 16th-18th centuries, though some (such as Hebrew and Arabic examples) are found much
earlier than that, and enthusiasts in several countries still produce them today. The vast majority appear in literary texts or on European buildings
(particularly in Germany and the Low Countries), usually over the entrance.
Those relating to maps have excited little interest outside map history circles. Even there, it is hard to find references to chronograms.
It is probably an exaggeration to say that the word does not occur in the index of any general, English-language study in the
history of cartography [though might it feature in German or Dutch publications?]. But, if it does, I have not found it. Nor do the British Library catalogues help here.
Most of what has been written about cartographic examples, therefore, is gathered together on this multi-authored page. It results from a discussion in
The Map Collector during the 1980s. The purpose of this exhumation is to bring into one accessible place all that is known about
this backwater in the history of cartography and, perhaps, to revive interest in it. Also, a little more information has become
available in the last twenty years, and it is hoped that this exercise may produce one or two more examples.
If your experience is like mine, once the meaning of a chronogram was pointed out to you, you will remember having seen one before. But
where? So, keep your eyes open, and you may be able to add to what we know about chronograms with cartographic relevance. A century ago,
James Hilton located 5000 chronograms. So far, around 20 map examples [but see the Update] have been found (with a few others of cartographic relevance) -
though that is some improvement on the single instance noted in 1983 [see the Census].
Searching via Google - something that was not of course possible when the original article was written - runs into two problems. First,
prominence is naturally given to citations of 'Chronogram: the monthly magazine of Arts and Current Events' (irrelevant here); second,
the term is commonly used, with a quite different meaning, in mathematical and scientific circles (as also is the common word 'map'). So
there may well be other relevant examples among the almost 10,000 hits Google offers for 'chronogram+map'.
As has been demonstrated by Francis Herbert and others, chronograms can provide previously unsuspected information, for example about unrecorded
earlier versions of a map. "Thus chronograms may be instructive as well as amusing - as was often their original purpose."
However, it should be remembered that the chronogram's date might not be that of the work's creation but rather a year
that had particular significance in that context [see the Notes to the Census]. Michael Boym is known to us as a Jesuit cartographer in China, but every
page of his Flora Sinensis (1656) "contained a chronogram pointing to the date of 1655, the date of coronation of
Emperor Leopold I as the King of Hungary, as Boym wanted to gain the support of that monarch for his mission" (Wikipedia).
It must have been generally assumed that the apparently erratic capitalisation would have immediately alerted the reader
to the presence of a chronogram. It is therefore interesting that a recent addition (in December 2018) actually
explains how a chronogram worked. It may be significant that the work in question, a news-map celebrating the creation of
one of the Dutch polders, De Wormer, would have been aimed at a much wider market than a literary text.
Lastly, engravers, particularly later copyists, could make the mistake of failing to capitalise one or
more numeral letters. They could not, of course, update the chronogram (since that would require a new
inscription) - except in the case of Hebrew examples, on which see the Note under '1566'.
Besides those acknowledged in the next section, the following have helpfully supplied recent information: Ashley Baynton-Williams, Bernard
Grothues, H.J. Haag, Francis Herbert, Joel Kovarsky, Joe McCollum, Peter Meurer, Markus Oehrli, Rehav Rubin and Martijn Storms.
Tony Campbell, 14 April 2008
The chronogram can be found at the foot of a two-part
news-map or broadside:
DE WORMER IN FIGVRE VAN EEN VOGHEL GESTELT [top centre]; RARA AVIS IN TERRIS [bottom centre];
N Klesius invenit [bottom right corner].
The chronogram reads:
sIC InDIgnatIo VersVM
eXt[e]rsIt, N.C.F.K. Ao. 1625. [below the right-hand Dutch text
column]
The upper (map) portion was used to illustrate a note by Laurien van der Werff about the ‘Kartografische en topografische collecties van het Rijksprentenkabinet’, Caert-Thresoor, Jg 36, 2017(1), p. 28. However no mention was made of the chronogram at the end of the much rarer bilingual letter-press text (Latin & Dutch) that forms the bottom half of the news-map.
As an interesting addition, there are six further single-line chronograms at the top of the letter-press. Although breaking the rule that only the Roman numerals should be capitalised, it yet lists separately the relevant letters for each line, provides an individual total for each, and finally adds those up to 1625. Apparently, even during the period of the chronogram’s heyday there were some people who needed to have its workings explained.
A further twist involves the 1557 Saint-Quentin battle map. This has a pair of chronograms and, as with De Wormer above, both of those include non-Roman numerals amongst the capital letters. Some of those involved the names of important people and it would no doubt have been impolitic to have downgraded their names. But, as pointed out by Francis Herbert ('Chronograms in cartography - an excursion into dates', Newsletter of the Brussels Map Circle, Maps in History, 64 (May 2019) pp.16-17), in this case, in an attempt to counteract the confusion likely to be caused by the use of capital A, G, H, P, Q, S and T, a dot has been placed beneath the relevant, Roman numeral instances.
As explained by Francis Herbert, Dutch texts refer to the designer/draughtsman/author as Nikolaas Kloesius/Klesius 'advokaat te Edam' or as Nicolaas Clesius 'advocaat uit Edam'.
A note between the legs of the turkey (?) records that the map depicts the construction of the Wormer polder in 1624.
There is an enlargeable scan on the website of the Geheugen van Nederland.
7 December 2018
In July 2017 I learnt of two new chronograms, the first additions since 2008. Both are from the early 17th century
and within fifteen years of one another. This brings the total of recorded cartographic chronograms to 32.
Siege of Ypres, 1383
The chronogram forms the title of a reconstructed bird’s-eye map-view of the 1383 siege and is signed ‘Guill[aume] du
Tielt’. It appeared in a work by Adriaan [or Adriaen] van Schrieck, Beleg van Ypre, door de Engelschen en
Gendtenaers, ten Jaere 1383, en Oorsprong van de Feest gezegd den Tuindag, in which this engraving was published
for the first time.
The chronogram is in a simple frame at the top left. It can be roughly made out in a low
resolution scan from Wikipedia.
The inscription reads:
EIâ fIDeLeIs prInCIpI CIVeIs, EIâ,
pVgnate fortIter, èn parens ab oethere èt gnatVs, IprIs passa tenDVnt
braChIa
References
For an explanation and
transcription of the inscriptions see Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, ‘Reading history maps: the siege of
Ypres [in 1383] mapped by Guillaume du Tielt’, Quaerendo, 45 (2015), 292-321 (the chronogram is
transcribed as footnote 56)
Spanish recapture of Bahia de Todos los Santos, 1625
The engraving is untitled but signed, 'Alardo de Popma fecit
Matriti Año de 1625.' It is a broadside ‘news map’, with letterpress text beneath the engraved image.
The
chronogram appears in the lower right corner and, once again, serves as the sheet’s title. In this case there is a
very adequate online image, provided by the John Carter Brown Library [to enlarge for high resolution, move the slider device which appears in the
lower middle of the screen].
The inscription is written in large and small capitals as follows:
ANNO BRASILIAE
LIBERATAE BRED
Francis Herbert drew my attention to a chronogram published in 1610 and recently
described by Bram Vannieuwenhuyze. It is significant for two reasons. First because the chronogram spells out 1383, the year of a
celebrated siege of Ypres in Belgium, rather than the year of publication (1610). And second because it is one of the
instances where the date – in this case that of a much earlier event – is not written out in numerals elsewhere.
[= 1383 – make sure to count all thirteen of the instances of ‘i’ = ‘I’]
For an image see Gijs Boink & Martijn Storms, ‘ “Ik ben heel beïnvloedbaar”: interview met
bijzonder hoogleraar Bram Vannieuwenhuyze’, Caert-Thresoor, 36:1 (2017) 3-9 (p. 7).
It was Ashley Baynton-Williams who alerted me to this
second example. It represents an unusual printed map in Spanish of the joint Portuguese and Spanish recapture of São
Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos, in Brazil, from the Dutch on 1st May 1625. The Dutch West India Company had
taken Salvador from the Portuguese the year before.
Alardo de Popma (d. 1641) was a Flemish engraver, who settled in Madrid, and seems to have been active there from
about 1616 up to his death. One other map is known by him, featuring Cadiz Harbour.
9 August 2017
Just two weeks after this page was launched it has proved possible to make significant additions to the original census.
Where there had been nineteen 'genuine' examples of chronograms on maps, or sometimes city plans or views, the total
has now been increased to 30. All but one of the additions comes via a single source, the IKAR - Landkartendrucke vor
1850. It was a chance accident that revealed how this composite (or 'union') catalogue of the pre-1850
collections of several of the more important map libraries in Germany provided direct access to the cataloguer's
comments. The word 'chronogram', or, in German, 'chronogramm', would not appear in a map's title. It was, after all,
a hidden date. Where most online catalogues allow you to search for author, title and perhaps geographical subject or date, few
provide a full keyword search. Without that ability it is not possible to seek further unknown instances of chronograms.
Among the eleven new entries (recognisable from the date '28 April 2008', added to the right column of the Census), is one that, for maps at least, reveals a new type. In 1758, Johann
Friedrich Haehn reissued his composite sheet of German maps and plans. Rather than replace the now redundant
chronogram of 1751 (the date of the first issue), he extended the original inscription with a second chronogram.
When the decision was taken to recast the form of this census, providing notes for each map and transcribing, wherever
possible, the chronogram, another interesting variation emerged. The chronogram that had helped to establish a 1608
original version of Blaeu's wall-map of the Netherlands (known from a 1622 reissue) ended by replicating the way that
such hidden dates are usually revealed to a reader, e.g. by noting the number of instances of D, M, C, etc. in turn.
Which is exactly what he does at the end of his chronogram.
With 30 cartographic examples now available - treating the two 1758 Anich globes as a single item - possible national
patterns are emerging. Perhaps half of the identified map chronograms are from the German-speaking world, though that
may be distorted by the special accessibility of the German union map catalogue (IKAR). About ten derive from the Low
Countries, and one or two each from Bohemia, France and Italy - assuming that the 1603 British Isles map was actually
the work of an engraver from the Low Countries.
Working through the IKAR Datenbank, which threw up 33 entries for 'chronogramm' [38 in August 2017, mostly repeats and none new], it is clear that many cataloguers were unaware of
the bibliographical importance of a map's chronogram for (sometimes) providing a publication date. In one instance the suggested date of
issue was earlier than the chronogram year.
Not realising the significance of a chronogram can easily lead to transcription mistakes. Union catalogues, whose
records are often shared, multiply such errors as 'antChrIst' for 'antIChrIst', thus losing a year from the true
date (1664). The 1573/1623 error in the chronogram on different versions of the map of Charlemagne's Empire (through
failing to capitalise a letter 'L') was already known. That was done by a copyist engraver working for the Blaeus.
What is perhaps more surprising is (if the catalogue entries are accurate) that Frans Hogenberg made nonsense of the
chronogram on the plan of the German town of Neuß (by reducing the year by a full century through failing to
capitalise a 'c'). He was certainly not a reproductive engraver, and surely the plan was his own work.
28 April 2008
Some chronograms provide further dating information, occasionally a specific day and month as well as the year. However,
this will not usually provide a more precise publication date. See the comments in the
Notes entries for:
3 May & 2 June 2008
I am grateful to Joe McCollum for pointing out these instances.
Francis Herbert's first letter comprises an excellent summary of the extent of our current knowledge about cartographic chronograms. For convenience, his tally, along with later additions, is set out in the Census, whose Notes record more recent publications on this topic.
Any crossword addict can recognise an anagram at three paces, and any reader of Latin verse two centuries ago would have spotted a
chronogram with equal facility. Yet few today would probably realise the significance of the apparently erratic capitalisation that is
the distinguishing characteristic of a chronogram. An example can be seen in our illustration of a detail from Gerard Valk's map of
Spain, towards the end of the dedication inscription. What might appear to be the work of an abnormally careless printer, or
alternatively a separate message spelt out in the capital letters, is, in fact, a hidden Roman date. It is called a chronogram from the
Greek words for 'time' and 'writing'.
The art of devising chronograms has been so thoroughly lost that contemporary English-language encyclopaedias are mute on the subject.
And why, it could reasonably be asked, should they trouble with such an obscure triviality? Yet an indefatigable Victorian antiquarian
James Hilton (who must have been one of the very few people to have had almost the first and last words on his subject) managed to record
no fewer than 38,000 examples. Most were on medals, on inscriptions or in Latin verse, although some buildings display them -
particularly churches, where they must have proved pleasantly diverting during sermon time. Winchester Cathedral, for instance, has one
on the tower ceiling. Most of those Hilton transcribed, however, are literary. Some authors even devoted a relentless ingenuity to
composing entire works whose sole purpose was to reproduce the relevant date in a seemingly endless succession of chronograms. We can
use the illustrated example to demonstrate how a chronogram works:
The numerical letters have here been capitalised, although in another medium they might well have been picked out in a different colour. [Note that only the bold capital letters should be considered.] If the relevant letters are arranged in their descending value order we get:
M = 1000
D = 500
C = 100
L = 50
X = 10
VVVVVVVV = 40 (each V is 5)
IIII = 4
Total = 1704
Commentators have distinguished various kinds of chronograms. Since Valk places his numerical letters in an incorrect order, and since he does not give the hidden date in its usual form (MDCCIV or MDCCIIII), this specimen cannot claim to be one of the most refined type. But it does at least satisfy Hilton's requirement that 'the words composing a chronogram ought to convey a pertinent allusion to the event which it commemorates, the sentence should be concise, and should contain no more numerical letters than are necessary to form the date'. As to the 'pertinent allusion' demanded by Hilton, the chronogram's literal meaning - loosely, 'Long live King Charles III of Spain!' - forms part of the map's political purpose: a statement in favour of the imperial claimant to the Spanish throne. Following the proclamation of the French nominee as Philip V in 1701, Europe became embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession. Valk in Amsterdam, however, reflected contradictory Dutch support for the Emperor's son, Charles Leopold, who had been proclaimed as Charles III of Spain in Vienna in 1703. Indeed, Charles's visit to Holland, en route for Catalonia to test his claim by force, was no doubt the reason for publishing a map of Spain at that particular time.
This is the only map chronogram known to me and I have enquired in vain about others. Hilton unfortunately seems not to have considered maps at all. If The Map Collector's ever-alert readers were to keep an eye open, it might prove possible to assemble a cartographic supplement to Hilton's 38,000. Other examples must surely exist. Valk's map of Spain is, of course, clearly dated anyway to the intercalary (or leap year) of 1704. Hilton records a number of 'undated' books whose title-pages actually contain the date in chronogrammatic form. Examples on maps previously thought to be undated would be especially valuable.
For those engaged in this search it is worth noting that the hey-day of chronograms was the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although they seem to have originated in the Near East several centuries before that. Their most likely place of construction would be Germany or the Low Countries. One word of warning: as Hilton points out, the chronogrammatic total would occasionally have to be halved to reveal the date!
To Joseph Addison, writing at the beginning of the eighteenth century, chronograms represented a 'false wit'. They were a 'near relation to anagrams and acrostics - the results of monkish ignorance - tricks in writing requiring much time and little capacity'. Addison was distressed by the excessive pedantry involved. We, surely, can take a more tolerant view and, while enjoying the search for further cartographic examples for its own sake, may inadvertently unearth information of genuine historical value.
Works consulted:
James Hilton, Chronograms 5000 and more in number excerpted from various authors and collected at many places (London: Elliot Stock, 1882).
... Chronograms continued and concluded (London: Elliot Stock, 1885).
... Chronograms collected - more than 4000 in number (London: Elliot Stock, 1895). [Available online from Google Books. For further Hilton references see 'Other General References']
Pierre Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIXe
siècle (Paris, 1869) ['Chronogramme'].
Sir,
I found Tony Campbell's 'Compass Points' in the March issue particularly interesting since I have come across several map
chronograms over the years. In my naivete I had not realised they were rare and cannot give references except to say that in the
historical map collection at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, I recall at least one. If anyone is
interested, I think I can track down the full citation.
I enclose a Xerox of a chronogram on a set of globe gores of the Western Hemisphere in the map collection at Yale. The gores were done by Peter Anich in Deciphering the Chronogram, 1757. {Afternote correction: the chronogram dates to 1758, as described by Francis Herbert for the celestial pair. See the catalogue entry in the National Library of Australia and the enlargeable scan of the gores} Interestingly enough, no globe gores by Anich are listed either in E. L. Stevenson's Terrestial and Celestial Globes or in E. Yonge's Catalogue of Early Globes, 1968, although Tooley's Dictionary lists Anich as producing globes 1756-9.
I'm sure Campbell's article will trigger memories other than mine and should result in a longer list of map examples.
Barbara B. McCorkle
Map Curator
Yale University Library
New Haven
Connecticut 06520
USA
Madam,
In offering a few thoughts on cartographic chronograms in Issue 22, I felt I had given hostages to fortune and that you, the
long-suffering Editor, would he deluged with sufficient further examples to rue the day you had agreed to publish the piece. In
the event, my meagre total of identified chronograms (one) has been no more than doubled, and that thanks to a letter sent in
from Yale by Barbara McCorkle (Issue 23).
To that pair can now be added a third, and this, like the Anich globe gores from Yale, is datable only by its chronogram. The present example, however, introduces a new element: a mistake by an uncomprehending engraver! As can be seen from the illustration of its title cartouche, this concerns a map of Charlemagne's Empire. What would not be apparent is that it forms part of a four-sheet map issued by Willem and Joan Blaeu in 1635 (Koeman Bl 8A - Vol. 1, p.100. The chronogrammatic date (obtained by listing out the capitalized, or numeral letters) gives:
DD =1000
CCCCC = 500
L = 50
VVV = 15
IIIIIIII = 8
Total = 1573
This date poses a number of problems and warns against total reliance on chronograms. In 1573, the named author, Petrus Bertius, precocious no doubt, was a mere eight years old. Nor did he become Cosmographer to the map's dedicatee 'Ludovico regi' (i.e. Louis XIII of France) until 1618. The explanation is simple. The unnamed engraver, not being fully conversant with the rules of chronograms, failed to realize that all the numeral letters had to be capitalized, including the 'L' of 'Ecclesiae'. Once this mistake is rectified, 1573 becomes 1623. This far more plausible date, some twelve years before the map's inclusion in the Blaeu atlas, suggests it was probably published separately by Bertius himself before the copper plates passed to the Blaeu firm.
Tony Campbell
Robert Douwma Prints & Maps Ltd
4 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8QU
Madam,
Further to Tony Campbell's article on chronograms (TMC, Issue 22), the letter from Barbara McCorkle (Issue 23), and
the letter from Tony Campbell (Issue 26), I am delighted to announce a fourth example of a chronogram on a map. This
should be particularly welcome to your Research Editor as it provides an example of his perspicacity.
The third chronogram (Issue 26) is from the Blaeus' four-sheet map of the Carolingian Empire; Campbell suggests that the engraver has misunderstood the necessity of capitalising the right letters in the title, and postulates that it should read 1623. The accompanying photograph shows that he is right, the 'L' of 'Ecclesiae' is indeed a capital.
The dedicatory cartouche illustrated is from an untitled map of the Carolingian Empire engraved by Joannes Picart of Paris in four sheets; a printed gazetteer pasted on the back bears the imprint of Joanem Boisseau of Paris. It measures 958 x 650 mm, while the Blaeus' map is 985 x 624 mm; the latter is clearly not printed from the plates of the former, though it is a close copy; Picart has stipple-engraved the sea, included ships and dolphins, and has more historical notes than the Blaeus, in addition to the magnificent dedication to Louis XIII.
The existence of a 1623 map by Bertius remains conjectural, but I suggest, with the discovery of the Picart, that its existence is only possible rather than probable. It is possible that Picart and Bertius published their maps in the same year; in this connection it may be remarked that France adopted the new style Gregorian calendar in 1582, so the date in the Picart cartouche is certainly February 1623.
If we are to compile a chronology of cartographic chronograms I suggest the Picart be provisionally numbered 1, the Blaeus' 2, the Valk 3, and the Yale Anich 4.
Roger Mason
Oxford
Chronogrammatica
I thought readers of TMC would be interested in the following cartographic chronograms which have come to light as a result of Tony Campbell's 'Compass Points' in TMC 22. Obviously there must still be more out there waiting to be listed so I hope readers will continue to keep their eyes open for other examples.
The earliest chronogram was found by Ashley Baynton-Williams on a map-view depicting the siege and battle of Saint-Quentin (northern France) in August 1557. The item can be found often in Lafreri-type atlases, the example illustrated being in the Royal Geographical Society Map Room.1 It is unusual in that each of the two laudatory verses on either side of the scene contains a chronogram adding up to 1557. { Afternote, April 2008. Ashley Baynton-Williams kindly supplied the two inscriptions in full:
On the Saint-Quentin battle map see also Yolande Hodson's note on the example in George III's Military Map Collection; and Francis Herbert's note (illustrated with three details): 'Chronograms in cartography - an excursion into dates', Newsletter of the Brussels Map Circle, Maps in History, 64 (May 2019) pp.16-17.
The next pair were reported by Günter Schilder (although the second one had been spotted earlier by Ashley Baynton-Williams and Roger Mason) and can both be seen, also illustrated, in Volume One of his Monumenta Cartographica Neerlandica (1986). The earliest is from 1600 and appears on Baptista van Deutecum's 'Afcontrafeytinge van t'Landt van den Zype bedyckt inden Iare 1597' whilst the second appears on W.J. Blaeu's 'Nieuwe ende waarachtighe beschrijvinghe der zeventien Nederlanden...' (Amsterdam, 1622). From this and other evidence it is known that there was, in fact, a 1608 edition of the Blaeu map: the chronogram helps support this evidence. Until recently to be found only on a state issued probably by Peter Stent with the date altered to 1643 2 is the map 'Angliae et Hiberniae nova descriptio veteribus et recentioribus nominibus. . .' (anonymous, after Jodocus Hondius). Tony Campbell reports that there was assumed to be an original issue of 1603 but that no copy was known until the British Library acquired one. Its chronogram, in the small panel to the right, bears out the earlier assumption: 'Absoluta opus hoc est anno MIserICorDIae...'
Chronograms have also been discovered on maps on medals. From information supplied to Tony Campbell by Bernard Grothues of Hoensbrock in The Netherlands, we can add the following: 'ITANE FLANDRI AM LIBERAS IBER'. The date works out to 1604 and appears on a map of Ostend depicting its siege by the Spanish. On the reverse of the medal the anonymous artist has a map of Sluys and the area encompassed by Aerdenburch [Aardenburg], Oostburch [Oostburg] - in The Netherlands - and Westkapel [Westkapelle] in Belgium.
To these seventeenth-century items may I add three more from the eighteenth century? The earliest is another example of two chronograms on one map. The title on this map is in Latin above the upper border 'Postarum seu Veredariorum Stationes per Germaniam et Provincias' or, in German in the cartouche at bottom right, 'Neuvermehrte Post-Charte durch gantz Teutschland ... '. Both chronograms appear at the top, one on a scroll and the other issuing from a post horn. ' ... paX gerManIae rastaDII paCta et san CIta est' and 'Marte Catenato trIbVIt DeVs otIa paCIs' (1714). The fact that one chronogram was to be seen on this map (originally compiled by J.R. Nell in 1709, then revised and engraved in copper and published by J. B. Homann from [1714?] onwards), was noted by Lothar Zögner in his exhibition catalogue. 3 The map itself, incidentally, like many other works of Homann, has a complex history which is not clarified by other writers such as Wilhelm Bonacker. 4
On another map 'Kurtze doch wahrhaffte Nachricht Was waehrend der durch dem im Jahr 1757, beschehen Preussichen gewaltsamen Einfall ... Be1agerung der Koenigl. Haupt und Residenz Stadt Prag ... ' (drawn by surveyor J.N. Breÿer, engraved by I. Saltzer in Prague) appears 'IgneIs qVas MIttIs re X prVsse ab parCe sagIttIs Intro VIX I bIs neCet absqVe rVbore reDIbIs', which equals 1757.
Globes, as distinct from globe gores, noted by Barbara McCorkle of Yale University Library (TMC 23) should not be forgotten either. 'LIncVIt In Isto MonasterIo reLIgI osVs fr. LanDeLInVs bIeheLer IbI professVs' (= 1781) is to be found on the celestial globe compiled and drawn by Landelin Bieheler and made by Thaddius Rinderle at St Peter's Benedictine monastery in the Black Forest; both this and its accompanying terrestrial globe are now in the Augustiner Museum in Freiburg. This chronogram cannot be illustrated as it was transcribed from an article by Kurt Schmidt about the St Peter globes. 5
Apart from chronograms on cartographic items it is, perhaps, of interest to note those relating to cartographers themselves. In the first volume of Hilton's collections of chronograms 6 there are quoted two commemorating the death of Ortelius (in 1598). What is curious, however, is that both are erroneous: one gives the date 1594 and the other l599 (perhaps the makers were not sufficiently proficient in Latin?). Also of interest to both book and map collectors, Hilton quotes a chronogram which was to be seen on the front of Muller's bookshop in Kalverstraat, Amsterdam, which added up to 1728. Another example occurs in the frontispiece to Gough's edition of Camden's Britannia (1789 and 1806 (second) editions). The chronogram below this portrait of Camden equals 1622 (the year he founded a chair in history at the University of Oxford): another item reported by Ashley Baynton-Williams.
Combining the features of both books and maps are, of course, atlases. Beneath a crown placed at the side of the full-length figure of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (reigned 1711-40) can be seen 'Me DeCet Corona SeXtI' (=1711) on a plate sometimes to be found in atlases by J.B. Homann. The present illustration is taken from a copy of his Atlas Novus Terrarum Orbis Imperia, Regna et Status... (Nuremberg [1730?]) in the Royal Geographical Society Map Room. This, like the W. J, Blaeu example above, may be helpful in indicating that an earlier edition of the same atlas was issued in or shortly after 1711: thus chronograms may be instructive as well as amusing - as was often their original purpose.
As a kind of footnote to this update on chronograms it is of more general interest to mention a theory proposed by Rolf Lindemann at the Twelfth International Conference on the History of Cartography at Paris in September last [1987]. He proposed that the Ebstorf world map could be dated to 1213 on account of a supposed hidden date in one of the incompletely-spelled out inscriptions. But Armin Wolf - who has researched and written thoroughly on the map - dismissed this tenuous possibility and has been able to date the Ebstorf map, from its internal historical evidence, to precisely 1239. 7
Francis Herbert
RGS Map Room
London
Two chronograms are reported from dealer Ashley Baynton-Williams and from Dr Rudolf Schmidt of the International Coronelli Society, Vienna. On 'Regna Hispaniarum, atque Portugalliae ...' of Gerard Valk, the dedication concludes: {then repeating the chronogram given in the original article above}.
On Peter Anich's 20cm celestial globe of 1758 (companion to the terrestrial, reported by Barbara McCorkle in TMC 23, p.47) appears the similar phrase 'Servoru[m] PetrVs AnICh AgrICoLa DoMo OberperfassensIs' [=1758) .
Francis Herbert,
RGS Map Room,
London.
This article appeared originally in The Map Collector 55 (Summer 1991), pp. 30-31. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author.
For the same author's later thoughts on this map (not available online) see:
THIS LARGE map measuring 534 x 843mm (21 x 33in) was printed from an engraved copper plate and shows the City of Jerusalem and the central part of the Holy Land from the Dead Sea in the east to the coastal plain in the west and from the area of Hebron in the south to the northern outskirts of Jerusalem in the north. The chronogram appears in the third line of the dedication 'Ihro KaIserLIChen KonIgLIChen MaIestät ELIsabetha ChrIstIna V höChst VnterthänIgster obserVanz fLeIssIgst abgezeIChnet' {NB ignore capital letters not in bold} (Queen and Empress Elisabeth Christina the Fifth by her loyal subject who drew [the map] carefully).
These letters are used as Roman numerals and by adding them up you get the following result:
I = 1 occurs 13 times = 13
V = 5 occurs 3 times = 15
L = 50 occurs 4 times = 200
C = 100 occurs 5 times = 500
M = 1,000
occurs 1 time = 1,000
Added together these make 1,728 referring to the year of the map's dedication and printing.
This date correlates with the life of Elisabetha Christina (1691-1750) who was born as Elisabeth of Brunswick (Braunschweig), married Charles VI in 1708, and then became Queen of Bohemia and Hungary and Empress of Austria. She was the mother of the famous Maria Theresa. 1
The map details numerous sites and scenes all captioned at the bottom. These include Cain killing Abel, David and Goliath in battle, the site where the star appeared to the three Magi, along with scenes from daily life in Jerusalem during the eighteenth century like the Arab horsemen or the camel caravans approaching the city. I know of only two copies of the map - an uncoloured one in the Laor collection in the Jewish National and University Library in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2 and a coloured copy in the Hauslab-Liechtenstein collection in the Library of Congress, Washington DC. 3
I have not been able to find any information about De Pierre but a number of clues can be drawn from the map itself. As the signature at the bottom of the map identifies him as 'Eques S. S. Sepulchri' it is safe to assume that he was a Roman Catholic who had accomplished a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or even lived in the city for some time. At the top of the map there are three lines in German. The first and second lines are the title, 'A real and thorough drawing of the world renowned and Very Holy City Jerusalem, all the sites in its environs and the Holy Sites, along with things that are worth mentioning that had been sanctified through the Life, Miracles, Sufferings, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ'. [Wahrer und Gründlicher Abriss der Welt-berühmten und Hochheiligen Stadt Jerusalem aller angrenzenden Ortern und Heiligtümern wie aüch anderer Merctwürdigkeiten welche dürch das Leben, Wunderzeichen, Leiden, Todt, und Auserstehung Jesu Christt sejnd geheiliget worden.] The third line is the dedication and chronogram.
References
[For an online, dealer's description (undated, seen April 2008), which describes a third surviving example and mentions a fourth, see Antique- World.]
Arranged by the year given by the chronogram, which may be different from the map's
date of issue, e.g. in the case of a reissue or where it commemorates an event
Date Ill. Author Title Internal References Comments 1383 Guillaume du Tielt siege plan of Ypres -- * published in 1610 in an historical work {added 9 August 2017}
1552 Faber von Creuznach, Conrad/Konrad siege plan of Frankfurt -- the chronogram and imprint are both 1552; the British Library catalogue gives 1553 as the
publication date (without explanation); the linked scan does not include the chronogram 1557 -- siege plan of Saint-Quentin Herbert letter 1 (& p.50) two chronograms; search Newberry Library Cartographic Catalog for 'chronogram' 1566? -- -- East Mediterranean & Holy Land -- * 1573 Blaeu., W. & J. Carolingian Empire mistake for 1623 (see Picart); attributed to P. Bertius; in the 1635 Blaeu atlas; scan courtesy of Catawiki auctions (1586) -- Hogenberg, F. plan of Neuß -- {added 28 April 2008} 1594 -- -- Ortelius memorial text * date should be 1598 1597 Doetecum, B. van Zype chronogram refers to drainage date; map published 1600 (in two versions); chronogram repeated by J.Blaeu (1662); scans courtesy of the Zijper Museum 1599 -- -- Ortelius memorial text * date should be 1598 1600 Balthasar, F. siege plan of Nieuwpoort -- * the chronogram spells out the precise date of the Dutch success (2 July 1600); scan courtesy of Leiden University Library {added 28 April 2008} 1603 -- Hondius, J. (after) British Isles also 1643 Stent reissue 1604 -- -- medal with plan of siege of Ostend * two chronograms 1605 -- Quad, M. Distance triangle -- * 1608 Blaeu, W.J. Netherlands Herbert letter 1 (& p.50) * chronogram gives evidence of a 1608 version although surviving map is dated 1622 1610 -- see under 1383 -- -- -- 1612 -- Overadt, P. view of Antwerp -- -- 1622 -- -- portrait of W. Camden * in 1789 & 1806 editions of Britannia; in 1622 Camden founded a history chair at Oxford 1623 Picart, J. Carolingian Empire Mason letter (&) * imprint of J.Boisseau on reverse 1625 Klesius, N. De Wormer The lower (text sheet) has the chronogram at the foot; also six,
single-line chronograms, showing the workings, at the top of that section {added 7 December 2018}.
-- 1625 Alardo de Popma Spanish recapture of Bahia de Todos los Santos -- * scan courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library
{added 9 August 2017}
1664 -- Sandrart, J. Hungary -- {added 28 April 2008} 1683 -- -- medal with plan of the siege of Vienna -- -- 1695 Abraham ben Yaacov Holy Land -- * scan courtesy of the Jewish National and University Library 1699 -- -- medal with map of the conquest of Hungary and Siebenburgen -- -- 1704 Valk, G. Spain and Portugal Campbell article (&) scan courtesy of the Biblioteca Nacional de España (click right arrow) 1711 < https://www.raremaps.com/maps/medium/46964.jpg > &
-- portrait of Charles VI Herbert letter 1 (& p.52) * in some Homann atlases; 1711 was the year Charles became Holy Roman Emperor.
1714 -- Hübner/Weigel/Adelbulner Germany -- * {added 28 April 2008} 1714 -- Homann, J.B. [by Johann Peter Nell] Germany (post roads)
Herbert letter 1 (& p.51) * two chronograms; a scan (formerly on the site of
the Antique Print Room) is of a later plate with, apparently, the same chronograms 1714 -- Homann, J.B. Holy Roman Empire -- * {added 28 April 2008} 1717 -- Bodenehr, G. view of Belgrade -- * {added 28 April 2008} 1717 -- Biberger, J.U. Hungary -- {added 28 April 2008} 1724 Nigrin, J. Silesia Superior -- * two chronograms; scan courtesy of Projekt Staré Mapy {added 28 April 2008} 1728 De Pierre Jerusalem Rubin article (&) * scans courtesy of the Jewish National and University Library, and Antique-World 1749 -- Riedinger, G. Aschaffenburg -- {added 28 April 2008} 1751 -- Haehn, J.F. Germany (four engravings) -- {added 28 April 2008} 1757 Breÿer, J.N. Prague Herbert letter 1 (& p.51) -- 1758 -- Haehn, J.F. Germany (five engravings) -- an extension of the 1751 Germany multiple sheet, with a second chronogram for 1758 {added 28 April 2008} 1758 Anich, P. celestial globe gores (20cm) * pair with the terrestrial, and repeats its chronogram;
scan courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
1758 Anich, P. terrestrial globe gores (20cm) McCorkle letter (&) * pair with the celestial, and repeats its chronogram; scan courtesy of the National Library of Australia 1781 -- Bieheler, L celestial globe by T. Rinderle --
& provides a link to an online illustration
Titles in italics are not maps but chronograms with a cartographic connection
This is a summary
listing; see the Notes section for bibliographical details
and references
>
(&) indicates an illustration in The Map Collector issue referred to [it is hoped to be
able to add those to this page later]
* indicates those that are dated ONLY by their chronogram, i.e. the date is not
spelled out (as understood from the catalogue descriptions)
IKAR. A number of additional examples [with the date '28 April 2008' in the final
column above] were found by searching in the German union catalogue of pre-1850 maps, IKAR - Landkartendrucke vor 1850
. Select 'Datenbank' and enter 'chronogramm' [note the ending] into 'Suchen', to bring up 33 entries (though
many are repeats). [There were 38 entries in December 2016 but no new ones.]
1383. Siege of Ypres. See Update (9 August 2017)
1552. Siege of Frankfurt. From the British Library catalogue: "Francofordiae ac Emporii Germaniae
Celeberrimi Effigatio [sic] qualis quidem tum cernebatur, quum tempore Gallicae Confederationis gravi
obsidione premeretur ... vero ... denuo liberata, consisteret. Anno Domini MDLII. [Drawn originally by
Conrad Fabri {=Faber}, and engraved by Hans Graf or Grave. A modern facsimile with MS. account of the
siege, dated Sept. 5, 1832]. Maps C.25.a.22".
1557. Saint-Quentin (siege). 'S. Qvintano : Gallorum strages die x Augousti expugnatio vrbis die xxvii eiusdem. MDLVII'.
1566? East Mediterranean and Holy Land (Hebrew). Rehav Rubin, 'A sixteenth-century
Hebrew map from Mantua', Imago Mundi 62:1 (2010): 30-45 (passage below from p. 39; see also
fig.6 illustrating the chronogram); H. J. Haag, 'Die vermutlich älteste bekannte hebräische Holzschnittkarte des Heiligen Landes (um
1560)', Cartographica Helvetica, 4 (1991): 23-26.
Update note (10 June 2008) from Mr Haag. "There is no discussion of the chronogram in the cited
publication by H.J. Haag as the chronogram in Psalm 36,10 just above the seven-armed candlestick
[Menorah] (in the right bottom map corner) seems to be problematic in order to date the map. However, if
one regards one R [RESH] as dotted by mistake, the chronogram would sum up to [5]326 (i.e. c.1565)
instead of actually [5]526 (i.e. c.1765). This would come close to the suggested date of c.1560 found
from other evidence."
Further update note (10 February 2010). Rehav Rubin explained the chronogram as follows:
1573. Carolingian Empire. 'Imperii Caroli Magni et vicinarum regionum descriptio, Dedicata
et inscripta LVDoVICo, regI, VICtorI, et DefensorI
eCClesIae ChrIstI, ab Auctore Petro Bertio eiusdem Cosmographo'. Version
found in the Blaeu atlas.
(1586). Neuß. 'Neus'. Town plan of Neuß in North Rhine-Westphalia (28 x 19 cm), engraved by
Frans Hogenberg, from his Geschichtsblätter (Cologne, c.1600).
1594. Ortelius memorial text. Chronogram details not available.
1597. [Zype] 'De kaart van Doetecomius'
1599. Ortelius memorial text. Chronogram details not available.
1600. Nieuwpoort (siege). 'Slag bij Nieuwpoort', a four-sheet news plan by Floris Balthasar (58.5 × 88 cm), c.1601.
1603. British Isles. 'Angliae et Hiberniae nova descriptio veteribus et recentioribus
nominibus'.
1604. Medals:
1605. Distance triangle. Personal communication from Peter H. Meurer (April 2008). A distance triangle, 40.5 x 54.5 cm, separately published in
1605 by B. Caymox in Nuremberg (private collection in Germany). 'NEWE FORM EINER LANDTAFEL DER FVRNEMBSTEN VND BERVMBSTEN STETT IN DER
WELT, SONDRLICH IN EVROPA ... In der weitberumbten Reichsstat Nurnberg, bei Balthasar Caimox, burger und Kunst drucker daselbs. Laminae
autem aeneae incidebat Matthias Quadus. Anno MIserICorDIae et patIentIae'. See also: Peter H. Meurer,
'Zur Frühgeschichte der Entfernungsdreiecke', Cartographica Helvetica 24 (2001), pp.9-19.
1608. Netherlands. 'Nieuwe ende waarachtighe beschrijvinghe der zeventien Nederlanden...' (Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1622). The chronogram gives evidence of a 1608 version although the surviving map is dated 1622.
1610. Siege of Ypres (1383). See Update (9 August 2017)
1612. Antwerp. 'Antverpia totius inferioris Germaniae nobilissima et dvcatvs Brabantiae primaria vrbs' (Cologne: Peter Overadt, 1612).
1622. Camden portrait. Chronogram details not available.
1623. Carolingian Empire. Untitled, four-sheet map. Ioannes Picart incidit. LVT. PARIS. Cum Priuileg.
As Roger Mason noted, 'a printed gazetteer pasted on the back bears the imprint of Joanem Boisseau of Paris'. See the note to the '1573' Blaeu version.
1625. Creating the Wormer polder in 1624. See Update (7 December
2018)
1625. Spanish recapture of Bahia de Todos los Santos. See Update (9 August
2017)
1664. Hungary. 'Neue Land-Tafel von Hungarn und dessen incorporirten Königreichen und
Provinzen: auß den besten Mappen verfertigt und gebessert' (Nuremberg: Jacob Sandrart, 1664). (Evidently
found in: Louis Vlasblom, Universum Totale, Sive Rerum Visibilium Compendium).
1683 (Medal - Vienna), see under 1604.
1695. Holy Land (Hebrew). Harold Brodsky, 'The Seventeenth-Century Haggada map of Avraham Bar Yaacov', Jewish Art, 19/20 (1993/4), pp. 149-157.
On Hebrew chronograms generally see the 1901-1906
Jewish Encyclopedia (freely accessible); and on Hebrew numerical values, see 'Gematria' by David
Derovan, Gershom Scholem, and Moshe Idel, in: Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (eds),
Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), Vol. 7, pp.424-7
(available online through subscribing libraries). [For another Hebrew map see under 1566.]
1699 (Medal - Hungary and Siebenburgen), see under 1604.
1704. Spain & Portugal. 'Regna Hispaniarum, atque Portugalliae ... suas in provincias, territoria, et dioeceses; geographicè, politicè, ecclesiasticè, subdistincta per G. Valk'.
1711. Charles VI portrait.
Chronogram: 'Me DeCet Corona SeXtI' [= 1711]. Illustration.
1714. Germany. 'Germania: secundum VI. Fluvios suos coloribus distincta / ad usum Quaestionum Geographicarum Cl. Hübneri. Exc. Chri. Weigel. M. K. Sc.' (Nuremberg: Johann Ernst Adelbulner [1719]). Found in Johann D. Köhler, Bequemer Schul- und Reisen-Atlas.
1714. Germany (post roads). 'Postarum seu Veredariorum Stationes per Germaniam et
Provincias' / 'Neuvermehrte Post-Charte durch gantz Teutschland'. (Nuremberg: Homann [various dates])
1714. Holy Roman Empire. 'Imperium Romano-Germanicum In Suos Circulos, Electoratus Et Status accuratè distinctum / á Ioh. Bapt. Homanno'. Found in J.B. Homann's Grosser Atlas Über die Gantze Welt.
1717. View of Belgrade. 'Bellogradum Vi Capitur / Gabriel Bodenehr sculps. et excud. Aug. Vin.' (Amsterdam: Iustus Danckers, n.d.).
1717. 'Hungaria Cum Reliqua Moderni Cum Turcis Belli Sedes / Ioa. Ulr. Biberger sculp. Calco.' (Vienna, 1717).
1724. Upper Silesia. 'Ducatus In Silesia Superiore Teschinensis cum adiacentibus Regnorum vicinorum,
Hungariae videlicet et Poloniae, nec non Marchionatus Moraviae etc. Terminis, Mappa Specialis: [gewidmet] Leopoldo
Iosepho Carolo / conatu, opera et sumtibus Ionae Nigrini sedulò delineata sculpta et excusa candideque publicata'. [Place of publication not known.]
1728. Jerusalem. 'Wahrer und Gründlicher Abriss der Welt-berühmten und Hochheiligen Stadt Jerusalem'
([Germany?]: De Pierre, 1728). [see Rubin article].
1749. Aschaffenburg. Prospectiva oder Anblick der Churfuerstl[ichen] Residentz-Stadt Aschaffenburg und daselbstigen Schlosses sambt einer kurtzen Beschreibung / Georg Riedinger delin. et Baumeister. Henericus I. Ostertag. et Henericus H. Cöntgen sculp. Mag. [Mainz: Gedruckt und zu bekommen in Sti. Rochi Hospital, 1749). Two views on a sheet, 45 x 52 cm.
1751. (Germany). Four engravings on one sheet, 45 x 60 cm: Brandenburg & Pommern; Bareuth & Anspach; Germany; Schlesien. 'Celsissimo Principi Regio, Friderico Wilhelmo, Borussiae Principi, Marggravio Brandenb. etc. etc. Gaudio Regis, deliciis Parentum, augusti generis et genii haeredi faVsto atqVe Laeto VIII. nataLI, D. XXV. SepteMbrIs aVspICato celsissimae domus Brandenburgicae delineationem / animo devotissimo offert Joannes Fridericus Haehn. J. D. Schleuen sculpsit' (Berlin: Buchladen der Real-Schule, 1751).
1757. Prague. 'Kurtze doch wahrhaffte Nachricht Was waehrend der durch dem im Jahr 1757, beschehen
Preussichen gewaltsamen Einfall ... Belagerung der Koenigl. Haupt und Residenz Stadt Prag'. Drawn by surveyor J.N.
Breÿer, engraved by I. Saltzer in Prague.
1758. (Germany). Five engravings on two sheets, 51 x 105 cm, comprising the four listed under the 1751 entry and a plan of Berlin. 'Bildliche Vorstellung des Königl. Preuss. Churf- und Marckgraefl. Hauses Brandenburg, mit den zur Historie nöthigen Stücken aus der Geographie, Genealogie, Heraldic und Numismatic: Celsissimo Principi Regio, Friderico Wilhelmo, Borussiae Principi Marggravio Brand. Oculo Regis deliciis Parentis Augusti Generis et genii haeredi, Hanc celsissimae domus Brandenburgicae delineationem [1st] faVsto atqVe Laeto VIII. nataLI, D. XXV. SepteMbrIs aVspICato primo excusam [2nd] aC nataLI DeCIMo qVInto denuo recusam / animo devotissimo D. D. D. Joannes Fridericus Haehn. J. D. Schleuen fec.' (Berlin: Real-Schule, 1758).
There is a minor confusion about the precise dates given in this and the earlier version of 1751. Frederick William II was
born on 25 September 1744. The 1751 chronogram refers to his 8th birthday [VIII. nataLI], but this would have
taken place in 1752. Likewise, the 1758 chronogram cites his 15th birthday [nataLI DeCIMo qVInto], when
that would have occurred in the following year. There is no possibility that a Berlin publisher who specifically issued two versions
of this map to celebrate the birthday of the prince (who, by the time of his birthday in 1758 was the heir to the empire)
could have made a mistake. Might there have been a convention in Germany at that time of designating a person's birth as
their 'first birthday'?
1758. Anich 20 cm celestial globe. Title and chronogram both repeat the wording on the terrestrial pair, see next entry. Image - detail of the cartouche (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich).
1758. Anich 20 cm terrestrial globe. 'Excelsae Repraesentationi Regio-Caesareae Oenipontanae. Cujus
gratiosis favoribus privilegium artefacta sua distrahendi gratus adscribit, Mappas Has utriusque Globi Astronomici et
Geographici ex Doppelmayeri et Hasii Mappis planis huc applicatis à se excusas summa qua par est veneratione Dicat
Dedicat Servorum infirmus et Obsequentissimus' (Innsbruck, 1758).
1781. Bieheler/Rinderle globe. 'Compiled and drawn by Landelin Bieheler and made by Thaddius Rinderle at St Peter's
Benedictine monastery in the Black Forest'. Chronogram: 'LIncVIt In Isto MonasterIo
reLIgIosVs fr. LanDeLInVs bIeheLer IbI professVs' [=1781].
Chronogram: 'CaroLe QVInte tibI FranCforDIa Casar aDharens, VICtrIX grata tVIs perstItIt aVXILIIs'.
Search the IKAR 'Datenbank'
for 'Konrad Faber', to find six entries for various later and facsimile editions. See also the lot-tissimo auction
description, which refers to Johann von Glauburg and Johann Völkerus, and supplies the following
references: Slg. Stiebel I, 1 (erwähnt auch diese Ausg.); vgl. Fauser 4067 (mit diesem Titel, s. auch
4066); Bachmann III, 354, Thieme/B. XI, 148/9 u. Drugulin, Bilderatlas II, 148. For an account of the
plan see: Fried Lübbecke, 'Konrad Fabers Belagerungsplan von Frankfurt a. M. 1552' Jahresgabe für die
Mitglieder des Bundes tätiger Altstadtfreunde zu Frankfurt am Main 1945 (Bad Homburg vor der Höhe,
1945), and
here for a good scan of a later copy, with the title supplied in modern lettering, but with the
chronogram, which comes at the end, omitted].
Two chronograms: (1) 'De Philippo Catholico Hisp. Angliae etc. Rege Inuictiss. Pijssimo et cet. AD DIVVM LAVRENTIVM. LVX
tVa faVsta pIo, LaVrentI, hInC fert tIbI
CLaras PrIMItIas VICtore rIte PhILIppVs oVans Augustus
docuit quod et hic Augustus in armis, Caesaris inuicti est filius, acta probant'; (2) ' De feliciss.a et gloriossis:a Ill.mi et Ex:mi Philiberti Sabaudiae Ducis Victoria SoLIs In
opposItV et LVnae DVX Ipse Cohortes HIC Vna heV VICtas GaLLe SabaVDVs ago It: Quintini malo erant Quintili mense medendum. Ter nona Augusti hoc experimenta docent' [both = 1557].
The wording of the first chronogram includes "die x Augousti expugnatio vrbis die xxvii eiusdem" [10-27 August] and the
second "nona Augusti" [9 August]. The French (Gaspard de Coligny) were defeated by a Spanish force (Philibert
Emanuel of Savoy) on 10 August 1557.
Newberry Library Cartographic
Catalog: records 9223 & 9224, but search for 'chronogram'. Illustration.
Woodcut printed in Mantua; only known copy in the Zentralbibliothek, Zürich. [On Hebrew maps see also
under 1695.]
"Ten letters [----------] are individualized by dots above them to indicate a chronogram giving the date
of the map according to the numerical values of the Hebrew letters. The chronogram is easily translated
into the number 526 of the fifth millennium after the Creation of the world according to the Jewish era,
that is, the year 1766. [In order to calculate a year according to the Jewish era in the common era in
the last millennium, one should add 1240]. This is puzzling. Since the names of the two known
sixteenth-century
artists, Yitzhak Ben Shmuel Basan and Joseph Ben Yaacov are both clearly given at the end of the
text, the map must be dated to the sixteenth century. However, if an error is assumed in the placing of
the dots (for instance, on one of two occurrences of the letter [-] (= 200)), the date becomes 1566,
fitting with the publication evidence already noted." [Omitting the Hebrew letters, for technical
reasons].
Chronogram (embedded in the dedication above) [= 1573 - a mistake for
1623 because the 'L' of 'Ecclesiae' was not capitalised; some of the WorldCat entries give the date as
1622]. See also under 1623 below. Image.
Chronogram: 'NVssIa
de nIhILo Vano CognoMIne dIcta NVssea
sIC nVLLa, es nVssea nVLLa fore' [=1486]. As transcribed in the two records
traced on IKAR, the 'c' of 'dIcta' was not capitalised. Taking that into account would give 1586, the
date of a fire that destroyed much of the city (which the view graphically depicts), i.e. the chronogram is not a publication date. [via the
IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
Chronogram: 'SeVen en tWIntICh
Iaer door de Zeebaren kLaer Was t'zIIpLant beLast geLt en
handen te gaer MaeCten Weder daer een LangedIICk Vast';
see the excellent illustration of the chronogram near the foot of the page (note
that each of the three instances of 'W' should be read as two 'V's).
Under 'Beschrijvingen', there is a repeat of Günter Schilder's description from Volume VII of Monumenta Cartographica
Neerlandica, explaining that its date, 1597, refers to the year the polder's draining was completed. The words "SeVen en
tWIntICh Iaer" [27 years] presumably refer to the length of time taken to reclaim the land. The map, by the surveyor Gerrit
Dirksz Langedijk, was published in 1600 and reissued in 1620/30. It measures 58.5 x 47 cm.
There is another, smaller version (31 x 24 cm ) c. 1600, also engraved by Doetecum, and reproducing
the same chronogram, but vertically [Zijper Museum].
Chronogram (by Hugo Grotius) as the title; the original is all in capitals but with the relevant letters enlarged: VInCI
tVr aLbertVs qVIntILIs soLe seCVndo MaVrItIVs VIn
CIt beLLIgerante deo [=1600].
For a description and references see the entry in the 1987 'Goed Gezien' exhibition.,
with an Image.
As
Joe McCollum pointed out, in a private communication (3 May 2008), this chronogram does more than give just the year [1600]. The first
part of the inscription, 'VInCItVr aLbertVs qVIntILIs soLe seCVndo', states that Archduke Albert was defeated on the "second sun of
the fifth month" [i.e. 2 July].
Leiden University Library, Collectie Bodel Nijenhuis: 009-14-004.
Chronogram: 'Absoluta opus hoc est anno MIserICorDIae...' [=1603].
Rodney W. Shirley, Early printed maps of the British Isles 1477-1650: a bibliography (London, 1980), nos 254 & 525, plate
52.
I am most grateful to Bernard Grothues for supplying these references (March 2008). Since chronograms and maps occur quite frequently on
medals, it seems likely that other medals combining those two features will be identified in future.
Bernard Grothues, 'Het chronogram als versieringselement op penningen', De Beeldenaar 5 (1986) pp. 407-22 [see
408-9, describing the 1604 medal of the siege of Ostend].
Chronogram: 'ItaLVs, HIspanVs, BVrgVndIo, BeLga,
SaCerdos, gens dIspar, CaVjae sed parItate pares, Foedera pertraCrant PaCIs,
fors annVat [ae]qVa, HIspano et BeLgae Vortat VtrIMqVe benè.
MCCCCLLLVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIII. MV' [=1608]. Note that the instances of 'd' [=500] are not capitalised, and the Roman numerals
are written out at the end, as a kind of checklist. The final 'MV' on a separate line has a different purpose.
On this see also 'Puzzelen om te dateren',
a note by Lode Goukens (2010).
Illustration.
Peter H. Meurer, 'The Cologne map publisher Peter Overadt
(fl.1590-1652)', Imago Mundi 53 (2001), see pp. 39-40, fig.8 [the chronogram is not clear enough for
confident transcription.]
Chronogram: 'LVDoVICo, regI, VICtorI, et DefensorI
eCCLesIae ChrIstI. Kal.Feb.An. [MD]CXXIII. [= 1 February 1623]. Illustration.
Chronogram: 'Gott
steVre DeM bLVtgIrIgen Türken AntIChrIst' [=1664].
[via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
[Addendum note, 12 January 2010: Peter Barber
showed me an example in British Library, Maps K.Top.110.83, which reveals that the map does not otherwise have a date. The
old British Museum cataloguer evidently noticed the chonogram, since the date was given as [1664?].]
I am most grateful to Rehav Rubin, who adds the following notes:
The map appeared in the Amsterdam Passover Haggaddah - Seder
Haggadah shel Pesah (Amsterdam: Anschel and Issachar ben Eliezer, [5]455 =1695). The chronogram is found in a long sentence in the
upper left margin and can be recognized by the fact that some of the letters are marked with dots on top. Adding up the numerical value of
these dotted letters gives the date in the Jewish calendar. For example, a=1; b=2; c=3; .... Yod (I) = 10; and then 11 is a+I (Yod and
Aleph); like the Yota Kapa in Greek; Kaf is 20, etc.
In this case, for the second edition it was possible to update the chronogram year by adding dots on the top of other letters. For an
image see the scan from the Jewish National and University
Library, in Jerusalem.
Chronogram: 'VIVat HIspanorVM Penes EVropaeos InDos et VtrosqVe TertIVs
ReX CaroLVs!' [= 1704].
Image -
click right arrow for catalogue description and scan.
Chronogram: 'DItIa sUnt heIC MUnera PaCIs' [=1714]. There appears to be another version of the map, also 33 x 26 cm, with the title given as 'Germania in Circulos divisa / Excud. Christ. Weigelio. M. K. Sc.', and assigned to the same atlas (unless the map has two titles and imprints). [via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
Two chronograms: (1) ' ... paX gerManIae rastaDII paCta
et sanCIta est'; (2) 'Marte Catenato trIbVIt DeVs otIa paCIs' [= 1714].
Chronogram: 'ProfLIgatI VenIt MoDo LaVrca beLLI' [=1714]. [via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
Chronogram: 'BeLLograDVM VI CapItVr' [=1717]. It is not clear why this is described as published in Amsterdam by Danckerts when the map itself states it was published by G. Bodenehr in Augsburg. [via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
Chronogram: 'sCUtUM ConstantIa et fortItUDo' [=1717]. [via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
Two chronograms: (1) FaC, DeVs! assIDVè Constent LotharIngICa sCeptra, ContInVatâ ILLIs gLorIa sIt serIe!;
(2) Et pLaCeat SVperIs PrInCeps, aC paLMa Corona
LegetVr StIrpI seCVLa perpetVa [both = 1724]. [via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see
the headnote to this section.] Image.
Chronogram: 'Ihro KaIserLIChen KonIgLIChen MaIestät ELIsabetha
ChrIstIna V höChst VnterthänIgster obserVanz fLeIssIgst abgezeIChnet'
[= 1728]. Image.
Chronogram: 'O Gott! thVe VnserM Herrn sehr spathe Iahr VerLeIhen, So hoffen VVIr, Er VVIrD aLso Vns noCh offt erfreVen!' [=1749]. [via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
Chronogram picked out in the title, beginning 'faVsto' = 1751. [via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
See under 1758 for a comment on the date.
Chronogram: 'IgneIs qVas MIttIs reX prVsse ab parCe sagIttIs Intro VIX IbIs neCet absqVe rVbore reDIbIs' [= 1757].
Illustration.
Two different chronograms: the first [=1751] is a repeat of that on the map with title beginning 'Celsissimo Principi Regio, Friderico Wilhelmo, Borussiae Principi, Marggravio Brandenb.'; the second [=1758] has been prepared for this later version, which adds a second sheet containing a 'Plan von den Sechs Städten der Königl. und Churf. Residenz Berlin'. [via the IKAR 'Datenbank' - see the headnote to this section.]
Chronogram: 'PetrVs AnICh AgrICoLa DoMo OberperfassensIs' [=1758].
Image.
Kurt Schmidt, 'Die St. Peterer Globen im Freiburger Augustiner-museum', Information (Wien: Coronelli-Gesellschaft für Globe- und
Instrumentenkunde), 11 (March 1986) pp.7-15 [previously published in Zeitschrift des Breisgau-Geschichtsvereines 101 (1982).
Chronogram (a useful introduction by Jürgen Köller, though mostly concerned with German buildings).
James Hilton, Chronograms 5000 and more in number excerpted from various authors and collected at many places (London: Elliot Stock, 1882);
and supplements from the same publisher: Chronograms continued and concluded (1885), and Chronograms collected - more than 4000 in
number (1895). [This last is available online from Google Books.] In 1989, the British Library acquired further Hilton material,
Additional MSS 68939-41, on which see the online Manuscripts
Catalogue [select "Index search" from the top line, then enter ''hilton' in the first line and 'james' in the second, to retrieve a list of
MSS by him or owned by him]. A search on the British Library Integrated Catalogue, for
'hilton, james' as author and restricting the date to '1860->1920', brings up some other publications by him, including a further example
of his major work, 'Humanities Cup.410.g.419', which has additional material. These other works have not been consulted.
Veronika Marschall, Das Chronogramm: eine Studie zu Formen und Funktionen einer literarischen Kunstform: dargestellt am Beispiel von Gelegenheitsgedichten des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts aus den Beständen der Staatsbibliothek Bamberg (Frankfurt am Main; New York: P. Lang, 1997).
Wikipedia (though largely concerned with Hebrew examples). "Chronograms in versification are referred to as chronosticha, if they are a hexameter, and chronodisticha if they are a distich".
