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Books and Arts; Book Review;
A history of mapmaking;Views of the world;
There is no such thing as an objective map;
A History of the World in Twelve Maps. By Jerry Brotton.
Around 150AD an astronomer named Claudius Ptolemy wrote a book about how to make a proper map of the world. Penned in Greek on a papyrus scroll, the work, known as the “Geography”, is one of the most famous ancient texts on the science of mapmaking. It placed the job firmly in the domain of the geographer, who could use astronomy and mathematics to calculate from the stars what the world looked like below.
公元150年前后，一位名叫克劳狄斯·托勒密的天文学家写了一本关于如何恰当绘制世界地图的书。该书用希腊文书写在一卷莎草上，这部被称为《地理学》的著作是地图制图学方面最著名的古文献之一。该书毫不含糊地将这项工作归于地理学家范畴，因为地理学家可以使用天文学和数学知识推测从星球上观测下面的地球是什么样子。
Ptolemy's “Geography” was an attempt to take myths out of maps. It recommended using geometric lines of latitude and longitude to convey a three-dimensional Earth on a two-dimensional surface, and it included the co-ordinates of over 8,000 locations in the ancient world. Whether Ptolemy drew his own maps is unclear. The “Geography” disappeared for a thousand years, only for an unoriginal copy to appear in the 13th century, replete with coloured maps drawn by Byzantine scribes. Regardless, these geographic drawings and all other maps based on scientific calculation are his legacy.
托勒密的这部《地理学》试图揭开地图的神秘面纱。它告诉人们如何用经纬线这样的几何线条在二维的平面上表现出三维的地球来，书中还有古代世界8000多个地点的坐标。托勒密是否亲手绘制地图，目前尚不可知。《地理学》曾消失了一千年，直到13世纪才有一个副本出现，这个副本里倒是有很多拜占庭抄书官绘制的彩色地图。不管怎样，这些经过科学计算的地理绘图和其它地图都是他留给后人的宝贵财富。
But as Jerry Brotton explains in “A History of the World in Twelve Maps”, Ptolemy's scientific influence tells only part of the story. Mapmakers operate in environments of subjective knowledge. Their work is influenced by politics and patrons, regional assumptions and religious beliefs, all of which jostles with the science in determining what a map looks like and what it is used for. Mapmakers may be geographers and cartographers, but they can also be artists and imperialists, storytellers and propagandists.
但正如杰里·布洛顿在《12幅地图中的世界史》中解释的那样，托勒密的科学影响力只是这个故事的部分。地图绘制者生存的环境主观色彩浓厚，他们的工作受到政治、赞助人、区域假设以及宗教信仰等因素的影响，在确定地图的面貌及用途时，这些因素与科学相互碰撞。地图绘制者可能是地理学家和制图专家，但他们同时也可能既是艺术家又是帝国主义者，既是故事讲述人又是宣传分子。
Mr Brotton, a professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London, examines the complexity of mapmaking through the stories of 12 maps, which stretch across space and over time. The examples are impressively varied, from Ptolemy's toils to Google Earth, and include some lesser-known Islamic and East Asian works. Despite their differences, these maps enjoy some intriguing similarities, largely for the way they illustrate the priorities of their authors.
作为伦敦玛丽女王大学文艺复兴研究的教授，布洛顿先生通过12幅地图的讲述对绘图的复杂性进行了考察。这些地图跨度巨大，分属于不同时期、不同地区，既有托勒密艰苦劳作的产物，也有谷歌地球，还有一些更鲜为人知的伊斯兰作品和东亚作品。尽管它们之间各不相同，但也有一些有趣的相似之处，主要是由于这些地图反映了制图者在制图时所考虑的优先次序的方式。
The medieval Mappa Mundi in England's Hereford cathedral, for example, is little more than drawings on vellum, or stretched calfskin, and it lacks Ptolemy's geometric method. Yet it is a beautifully detailed map of the Christian world, based on the topography of the Bible—bewildering to the geographer, but sensible to people of faith. Oriented east, Jerusalem sits at the centre. Britain clings insignificantly to the edge.
比如，中世纪制作的英格兰赫里福德教堂世界地图不过是些绘在羔皮、或者说拉伸了的犊皮上的图案，没有使用托勒密的几何方法。但这幅基督教界的地图，取材于圣经上的记录，细节做得非常漂亮。这张地图让地理学家困惑不解，但对于基督徒来说则是顺理成章。它以东方为重心，把耶路撒冷放在地图的正中，英国则偏居一隅。
Time would change this view of the world in the eyes of British mapmakers. By the 19th century maps often placed the British Isles at the core. One such map in the book features a view of the globe with Britain and the North Atlantic in the centre to better portray the empire's sea power; Australia and half of South America are left off. Many of these maps, like those of the Spanish and Portuguese imperialists of the 16th century, did more to illustrate dominance and ambition than to improve cartographical practice.
在英国制图者看来，人们对于世界的看法会随着时间的改变而改变。到了19世纪，不列颠群岛常被放在地图的中心。这本书中就有一幅这样的全球地图，将英国和北大西洋放在中心位置，以更好地彰显大英帝国的海洋实力。澳大利亚以及半个南美竟被忽落。这其中的很多地图，比如16世纪西班牙和葡萄牙的地图，更多地是为了显示帝国的统治和野心，而不是为了提高制图技术。
Even now, when mapmakers have access to tools such as satellite images, there is still no objective and universally accepted map, argues Mr Brotton. “The idea of the world may be common to all societies; but different societies have very distinct ideas of the world and how it should be represented.” The author reckons that Google Earth and other digital mapping applications are just as vulnerable as their predecessors to national priorities and cultural norms. These maps can be cluttered with links to commercial enterprises and are subject to censorship. At their most penetrating, they raise questions of privacy.
布洛顿先生认为，即便是现在，虽然绘图者有卫星影像这样的工具可用，准确的、可被普遍接受的地图依然难觅。“世界的概念对所有的社会来说是可能是共同的，但不同的社会中的世界概念及其表现形式千差万别”。作者认为，谷歌地球以及其他的数字制图程序与其前身一样，在国家利益和文化传统面前都显得脆弱不堪。这些地图与商业有着千丝万缕的联系，并且要遵守各种各样的审查制度。最严重的还会牵扯到隐私问题。
Though he sets out to examine a mere 12 maps, Mr Brotton cannot help but give dozens more at least a passing mention. Ironically, this can be disorienting. Still, there is much to gain from this rich if overly detailed book. As the products of both art and science, maps are often fascinating interpretations of the perceived world. They are about data and spatial awareness, but also about money, empire and discovery. They tend to reveal more about the mapmakers than the lands they chronicle. Mr Brotton may fall short of providing the promised “history of the world”, but he offers plenty of good reasons to see old maps as windows to lost times.
尽管最初着手研究的地图只有区区12幅，但布洛顿先生在书中提及的地图却有很多，令人啼笑皆非地是，这可能让读者有些找不到方向。但不管怎样，只要你仔细阅读定会受益良多。地图既是艺术品，又是科学产品，常常是对这个被感知世界的美妙诠释。这些地图呈现给读者的是数据和空间感，但它也涉及到金钱、帝国和发现，向人们提供更多的是地图背后那些地图制作者的故事。布洛顿先生可能没有提供给读者所谓的“世界历史”，但是，他提供了大量理由来解释，为什么可将看老地图作为了解已逝时代的窗口。
