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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，一位名叫克勞狄斯·托勒密的天文學家寫了一本關于如何恰當繪制世界地圖的書。該書用希臘文書寫在一卷莎草上，這部被稱為《地理學》的著作是地圖制圖學方面最著名的古文獻之一。該書毫不含糊地將這項工作歸于地理學家范疇，因為地理學家可以使用天文學和數學知識推測從星球上觀測下面的地球是什么樣子。
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.
托勒密的這部《地理學》試圖揭開地圖的神秘面紗。它告訴人們如何用經緯線這樣的幾何線條在二維的平面上表現出三維的地球來，書中還有古代世界8000多個地點的坐標。托勒密是否親手繪制地圖，目前尚不可知。《地理學》曾消失了一千年，直到13世紀才有一個副本出現，這個副本里倒是有很多拜占庭抄書官繪制的彩色地圖。不管怎樣，這些經過科學計算的地理繪圖和其它地圖都是他留給后人的寶貴財富。
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·布洛頓在《12幅地圖中的世界史》中解釋的那樣，托勒密的科學影響力只是這個故事的部分。地圖繪制者生存的環境主觀色彩濃厚，他們的工作受到政治、贊助人、區域假設以及宗教信仰等因素的影響，在確定地圖的面貌及用途時，這些因素與科學相互碰撞。地圖繪制者可能是地理學家和制圖專家，但他們同時也可能既是藝術家又是帝國主義者，既是故事講述人又是宣傳分子。
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.
作為倫敦瑪麗女王大學文藝復興研究的教授，布洛頓先生通過12幅地圖的講述對繪圖的復雜性進行了考察。這些地圖跨度巨大，分屬于不同時期、不同地區，既有托勒密艱苦勞作的產物，也有谷歌地球，還有一些更鮮為人知的伊斯蘭作品和東亞作品。盡管它們之間各不相同，但也有一些有趣的相似之處，主要是由于這些地圖反映了制圖者在制圖時所考慮的優先次序的方式。
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，中世紀制作的英格蘭赫里福德教堂世界地圖不過是些繪在羔皮、或者說拉伸了的犢皮上的圖案，沒有使用托勒密的幾何方法。但這幅基督教界的地圖，取材于圣經上的記錄，細節做得非常漂亮。這張地圖讓地理學家困惑不解，但對于基督徒來說則是順理成章。它以東方為重心，把耶路撒冷放在地圖的正中，英國則偏居一隅。
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.
在英國制圖者看來，人們對于世界的看法會隨著時間的改變而改變。到了19世紀，不列顛群島常被放在地圖的中心。這本書中就有一幅這樣的全球地圖，將英國和北大西洋放在中心位置，以更好地彰顯大英帝國的海洋實力。澳大利亞以及半個南美竟被忽落。這其中的很多地圖，比如16世紀西班牙和葡萄牙的地圖，更多地是為了顯示帝國的統治和野心，而不是為了提高制圖技術。
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.
布洛頓先生認為，即便是現在，雖然繪圖者有衛星影像這樣的工具可用，準確的、可被普遍接受的地圖依然難覓。“世界的概念對所有的社會來說是可能是共同的，但不同的社會中的世界概念及其表現形式千差萬別”。作者認為，谷歌地球以及其他的數字制圖程序與其前身一樣，在國家利益和文化傳統面前都顯得脆弱不堪。這些地圖與商業有著千絲萬縷的聯系，并且要遵守各種各樣的審查制度。最嚴重的還會牽扯到隱私問題。
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.
盡管最初著手研究的地圖只有區區12幅，但布洛頓先生在書中提及的地圖卻有很多，令人啼笑皆非地是，這可能讓讀者有些找不到方向。但不管怎樣，只要你仔細閱讀定會受益良多。地圖既是藝術品，又是科學產品，常常是對這個被感知世界的美妙詮釋。這些地圖呈現給讀者的是數據和空間感，但它也涉及到金錢、帝國和發現，向人們提供更多的是地圖背后那些地圖制作者的故事。布洛頓先生可能沒有提供給讀者所謂的“世界歷史”，但是，他提供了大量理由來解釋，為什么可將看老地圖作為了解已逝時代的窗口。
