Glossary of Terms

A pleasant-sounding synonym for browning.  See browning.

Sometimes a map is pasted or glued onto another material, such as cloth, to make the map more rugged and durable.  Many folding maps and many wall maps were backed with cloth when issued.  Maps are sometimes backed for conservation purposes, usually with thin tissue.  Archival quality adhesive and backing material should be employed to prevent chemical deterioration of the paper.  This protects fragile maps from further damage from handling.  Maps should not be backed when there is no good reason to do so. Sometimes the words laid down or lined are used to describe the process. It is noted that some maps, particularly sea charts, were issued on a double paper, this being their normal condition.

Where the map has been too hastily and inaccurately printed on the sheet.

A realistic view of a city or village drawn from a usually hypothetical aerial vantage point. See also view map.

Where a mount has been cut with rounded corners (coins arrondis) to give a more pleasing presentation to the map.  The mount is also cut at an angle so that the mount is flush with the print surface.

This refers to the printing area that goes beyond the edge of the sheet after trimming.

This refers to the printing area that goes beyond the edge of the sheet after trimming.

See papier bleuté.

Also called Broadside. It is a separately published map which is one not issued as part of a book or atlas. It is usually printed on one side only.

See Broadsheet.

As the organic material in paper ages, it undergoes a chemical transformation that causes the paper to darken. The early stages of browning may produce a pleasing tone. Extreme browning is often accompanied by embrittlement of the paper. To retard aging, maps should be protected from atmospheric pollutants, contact with cheap paper or cardboard and from exposure to too much ultraviolet light from sunlight or fluorescent lamps.

Map showing the boundaries of subdivisions of land, often with the bearings and lengths thereof and the areas of individual tracts, for purposes of describing and recording ownership. It may also show culture, drainage, and other features relating to land use and value.

A term applied to 16th-century rectangular world maps, usually with rhumb lines.

Italian for cartouche.

Literally meaning the science or practice of map-drawing (O.E.D.). The products of precise research, the first physically accurate maps were constructed in the early Renaissance with the development of navigational aids and effective mapping tools. The ‘scientific’ cartography that followed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, paved the way for nineteenth century expansion. Initially created for mercenary pursuits, maps marked out trade routes between Europe and the trading posts of the East, benefiting merchants who called for new accurate maps. Gerardus Mercator, the first cartographer to use longitude and latitude for sailors, aided the pursuits of traders with his map of the world.

Is the first word of the following page inserted at the right-hand bottom corner of each page of a book, below the last line. An example is an Ortelius map of Malta with a description of Corfu on the verso of the map. The catchword Corfu is the first word of the following page.

The word Circa and its symbol (c.) means approximate. When dating old maps sometimes the precise date of issue is not known so an approximate date e.g. c.1759 is used to define a period of time when the cartographer flourished and was known to have worked on similar maps.

Where a map has had the rust stains or spotting removed by immersion in a solution (often bleach and water).

Italian for contemporary.

These are written descriptions found on the face or within the borders of a map that discuss aspects of geography, history, and politics of its subject.

The points of the compass are:

• Oriens – the rising sun, the East;
• Occidens – the setting sun, the West;
• Meridies – the midday sun, the South. Sometimes also found as
• Ostro. In fact the word Australia is derived from ‘ostro’.
• Septentriones – the seven stars of the Great Bear, the North.

An atlas compiled, often to order, by a map seller from maps on hand. Maps by different map-makers are often bound together in such atlases. See also Lafreri atlases and IATO atlases.

Pristine
Fleur de coin: being in the preserved mint condition
Some faults
Light toning
Only example known or extant
Unrecorded
Unlisted
Not known to Tooley
Not in BM/BL, etc
Special edition
Coloured by hand
Coloured by a contemporary hand
Old colour

Indicates something done at about the time the map was published, for example, contemporary colouring.

The method of engraving & printing maps from copper plates and used by engravers from the 16^th century until the early 19^th century. About 800-1000 ‘pulls’ or images could be taken from the plate before it needed to be re-engraved or re-etched. See also Engraving.

Countermark is the smaller or subsidiary watermark found in antique papers in addition to the main watermark. It served, as a rule, to indicate the name or initials of the paper maker.

A counter-proof in copper-plate printing is an image that is made on a new sheet of blank paper from a freshly-printed pull from an engraved plate. The ink, which is still wet, transfers from the printed pull to the blank sheet to produce a reversed, much paler, image on the new sheet. The example shown is that of a siege map by Tommaso Barlacchi done during the working process. It is the only known exemplar of a counter-proof of a Malta map. Counter-proof sheets obviously have no imprint.

Where maps are printed in the early 19^th century, for example using old stocks of 18^th century paper. Strange as it may seem paper type/quality changes quickly from one century to another but of course old stocks of paper from the former century were often used up in the new century until they were exhausted. This can be difficult when dating a map, but then the printing styles change too so it is usually not too difficult to see what has happened.

Where a map has been badly handled and creased.

Used to characterize hand-made paper retaining the original rough edges as produced by the papermaker. Most maps have the deckled edge trimmed off during binding, and deckle-edged maps are considered quite desirable.

An edition consists of the impressions made from a distinct state of a plate.

A printing process employing a metal plate on which has been scratched a design. When ink is applied to the plate, and the plate wiped, ink remains behind in the grooves. A dampened sheet of paper is laid onto the plate and under pressure the inked design is transferred.

A printing process similar to engraving, except that the plate is produced by coating it with an acid resistant material upon which the design is scratched. The plate is then immersed in acid to eat away at the scratched areas, creating the grooves to hold the ink for printing.

See remargined.

Copy but often quite old too.

See watermark.

A folio book is bound from sheets of paper folded one time. A map from such a book is sometimes said to be folio-sized. Typically, the vertical paper dimension of a folio map is greater than about 24 cm. Large folio maps would be about 45 to 55 cm, and imperial folio greater than about 55 cm.

Small, usually brown, spots on the paper caused by mould. Foxing often results from storage in damp conditions.

A process, now obsolete, which was invented by Firmin Gillot  (1820-1872), which turned a lithographic plate into a relief plate. A lithographic drawing was made on or transferred to zinc and dusted with resin which acted as a resist. The plate was then etched to make a relief block. An example of a map of Malta by Duvotenay titled Malte printed with this process is found in a c.1866 edition of the Atlas de la Révolution Francaise.

A section of a globe printed on paper, intended to be cut out and pasted to the surface of a sphere. Gores are usually shaped like an American football.

The system by which maps are inserted into the back of a book between two guard mounts.

See Lafreri atlas.

See Orthogonal view.

A single copy of a map. For example, if 1000 copies of a map are printed, there will be, at that time, 1000 impressions. Occasionally, it is possible to distinguish between early and late impressions of copper engravings. Copper is soft, and tends to wear. Therefore early impressions tend to be darker, and sometimes faint lettering guidelines used by the engraver are visible on impressions made early in the plate’s life.

Terms used to describe books printed prior to 1500 A.D., and also to maps printed before that time.

See remargined.

Map inserted in a publication. Notable examples are those inserted into the Illustrated London News and Gentlemen’s Magazine.

Where a map has been flattened to remove creases or surface defects.

All impressions printed at one time without alteration of the plate belong to the same issue. Thus, if two impressions are different states, the plate has been altered and they cannot belong to the same issue. However, an unaltered plate might have been used several times over a period years. In that case, the several issues would all be of the same state. Issues can sometimes be distinguished by the watermark, since different paper might have been used for each issue. For maps from atlases, different issues can often be distinguished by the text on the verso.

A term used to describe 16th-century Italian composite atlases of printed maps. These were apparently often made to order, and contents vary from atlas to atlas. The expression IATO atlases – Italian, Assembled To Order, was coined by Tooley because he claimed it reflected more accurately the origin and make-up of such atlases.

Terms often applied to Italian maps of the 16th-century, particularly those issued separately or in composite atlases.

See backed.

Part of the visible impression left by the wire grid used in the fabrication of laid paper. The laid lines are the finely spaced lines running parallel to the long dimension of the original sheet. There are typically 25 lines per inch (10 lines per cm.). Formerly referred to as ‘wire-marks’. See also chain lines and laid paper.

Handmade paper made by depositing cloth fibers suspended in water onto a wire grid. The grid leaves an impression on the paper, which may be seen when looking though the paper at a bright light. Most maps before about 1800 are printed on laid paper. See also chain lines, laid lines, and wove paper.

See colouring.

See key.

See collector’s mark.

See backed.

A form of printing first used for maps early in the 19^th century. The image is printed from a stone or other material on which ink adheres only to specially treated areas. See also chromolithography.

A cataloguer’s term used to describe a map in which a portion of the printed area is missing. Sometimes maps lacking printed surface are restored by pasting paper in the missing area on which the design is reproduced in facsimile or painted in. See also bleeding and shaving.

See rhumb lines.

The blank area outside the border of a map. Do not confuse margin with border. See border.

A French term for a type of decorative mount used to display maps, prints etc (usually watercolour lines) which recall the dominant colours in the map and are discreetly drawn around the border.

A circular or oval region, usually containing a portrait, sometimes used to embellish maps.

From the Latin ‘medius’ meaning middle and ‘dies’ meaning day. A semi great circle joining the earth’s poles known as lines of Longitude crossing the equator and all parallels of Latitude at right angles. See also prime meridian.

See colouring.

See backed.

The straight, printed lines separating the body of a map from the map margin. Sometimes called tidy line.

An octavo book is bound from sheets of paper folded in half three times. A map from such a book is sometimes said to be octavo-sized. Typically the vertical paper dimension of such a map is about 8 to 9 inches (20 to 23 cm). Abbreviated, 8vo.

When the surface of a map contacts another surface for many years, as in an atlas, there may be a transfer of printer’s ink or colour, or a chemical reaction, which faintly reproduces a mirror image of the other surface. Offsetting can even occur from one part of a map to another if the map is folded on itself.

See colouring.

The direction of the map with reference to the points of the compass.

An original is a map or view printed from the original plate, block, or stone before it has been retired from commercial use. Sometimes the last user does not destroy the plate or block, and it is later used to make restrikes.

See colouring.

Colouring that is applied to old maps only around the boundaries, borders, or coastlines.

Usually rectangular frames around the outside of a map enclosing views, scenes, or figures. See also carte à bordures, carte à figures.

A realistic depiction of a city or village from a point on the ground, often covering a wide horizontal angle.

Bluish paper. Also called blued paper.

Grey/Green tinted paper.

Sometimes spelled PERIPLOUS, so plural, PERIPLOI. A manuscript document of sailing directions used in classical times that listed, in order, the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore.

Where a map has been used and pinned up for display as in teaching geography or navigation.

Strictly speaking, the plate is the object from which impressions are made. Sometimes the plate becomes worn or damaged, and is replaced with a second plate. Impressions from the second plate are sometimes referred to as something like “2nd Plate”.

Impressions made from metal plates often show an indentation of the paper extending to just outside the printed area, made when the paper was crushed by the plate during printing. Some reproductions have a false plate mark.

A manuscript sea chart prepared for the use of mariners from about the 14th through the 16th-centuries.

Collection of written sailing directions in text form, indicating prominent coastal landmarks mostly drawn or marked perpendicular to the coast within the land area and indicating also navigational hazards sometimes marked with small crosses.

Post road maps showed road systems as a means of guidance for travellers. In 1675 Ogilby published the Britannia – a Geographical and Historical Description of the Principal Roads thereof consisting of 100 maps of the principal roads of England and Wales, engraved in strip form, giving details of the roads themselves and descriptive notes of the country on either side, each strip having a compass rose to indicate changes of direction. Post road maps were also used to establish a distribution network for public mail.

In 1880 international agreement was reached to accept the longitude of Greenwich, England as the Prime Meridian from which all sea time is measured. Prior to that England, Spain and France had their own Meridians through the Azores, Paris and London. Some early sea charts included all three Meridians on their surface.

When a map is printed, a small wrinkle in the paper may be compressed to form a permanent crease.

A map printed by the printer as an example before the main printing process begins.

A quarto book is bound from sheets of paper folded in half twice. A map from such a book is sometimes said to be quarto-sized. Typically the vertical paper dimension of such a map is about 23 to 28 cm. Abbreviated as 4to.

The side of the paper on which the image of interest appears. Also, the right-hand page of an open book. See also verso.

A remargined print has had paper added to three outer edges to extend them, protecting the original edges, and improving the appearance. If it is the inner margin only where the print was once attached to the book, the proper term is EXTENDED. If all four margins have had to be renewed, the map is described as INLAID.

A copy, usually photographically produced, of an original print. The reproduction may in some cases be difficult to distinguish from the original.

A map or view printed from the original plate, block, or stone, after the plate, block, or stone had fallen into disuse. The collector of maps will seldom, if ever, encounter restrikes since few plates or blocks have survived.

Lines criss-crossing old charts at various angles, usually along the directions of the compass points, to help plot courses. Sometimes also called loxodromic lines.

A style of ornamentation evolving from the baroque in early 18th-century France distinguished by refined use of scrollwork, seashells, foliage and so on. Rococo-style cartouches are often found on maps of the 18th-century. A style much used by Jacques Nicolas Bellin, Hydrographer to the King in Paris in the 18th century to decorate his maps and charts.

Where the surface of a map has been rubbed and the surface raised.

A separately published map is one not issued as part of a book or atlas. Sometimes maps usually found in atlases were also separately sold to customers who did not need an entire atlas. Separately issued maps tend to be in poor condition since they were not protected inside a book. See also broadsheet.

Shaving is a term used when part of the printed area is touched after it has been trimmed. Also called bleeding and loss of printed area.

When a map is in poor condition but is nevertheless offered for sale because it is very rare or significant or of a country/area in great demand.

All impressions printed from a given plate, without deliberate alteration of that plate, belong to the same state. If the plate is altered, for example, by adding a new place name or changing the date, impressions from that plate constitute a new state. Some maps have a dozen or more states. States are usually numbered serially. However, “intermediate” states often turn up later. When giving a state number, one should specify who numbered the states, since different authorities often have different numbering. If a new plate was cut, the state numbering may start anew, as in “first state of the second plate.”

Italian for state.

A method of engraving and printing from steel plates which became popular in the mid 19th century. As steel was a much harder substance than copper, many more images could be printed from the plate before it needed to be re-etched. See also engraving and copper engraving.

Engraved using dots.

Where a map was inserted by stitching it in with string or thread.

A stub is a narrow piece of paper which has been adhered along the fold of a map to be able to bind it together with other maps into an atlas. See also centrefold.

a.f., aq., aquaf., aquaforti, aquaforti fecit ‘made with strong water’. Aquafortis is the Latin for nitric acid, so this was the conventional term to mean ‘etched’. It was commonly used by a craftsman etching someone else’s image.

Appresso ‘At the house of’ (Italian).

Apud The Latin for appresso.

aq: tinta, aquatinta Used of the person who achieved on the plate the tonal aquatint areas in the image – usually, but not always, the person responsible for the whole plate.

cael., caelavit ‘engraved’. Used on engravings until the seventeenth century, and a reliable indication that the image was indeed engraved.

de1., delt., delin., delineavit ‘drew’. Used of the artist from whose drawing the craftsman prepared the printing surface. Compare pinx.

dessine ‘drawn’. See del. eng., engd., engraved Used mainly on line engravings, which combine etching with engraving, but sometimes even on aquatints which are unlikely to contain any engraved lines. Unlike the equivalent sc., this was not much borrowed by the wood engravers of the nineteenth century and so is at least a fairly reliable indication of an intaglio print.

engraved on stone Up to the mid-1820s this could mean merely drawn on stone for a conventional lithograph, but thereafter it is likely to indicate a stone engraving.

exc., exct., excudit, excudebat, ‘struck out’ or ‘made’. Conventionally used of the publisher of a print, but can also be found referring to the man who more literally ‘made’ it, in the sense of creating the printing surface, where someone else is credited as the publisher.

f., fec., feet., fecit, fac., faciebat ‘made’ or ‘did’. Widely but vaguely used on prints. It can be found on lithographs as well as on every type of intaglio print. It is most often used where the originator of the image has also created the printing surface, but this is far from invariable. Can also be used of a specific task – for example aquatinta fecit, meaning ‘aquatinted’, where another craftsman is credited with etching the outline.

formis (owner of the forms) used often on the Malta maps by Pietro de Nobili.

gez., gezeichnet ‘drawn’. See del.

gravé ‘engraved’. See eng. for normal meaning; but also sometimes used in France on lithographs.

imp., impressit ‘printed’. Almost exclusively used of the rolling press and so an indication of an intaglio print; but see also imp. lith.

imp. lith. The lithographer’s version of the intaglio printer’s imp., meaning printed on a lithographic press.

inc., incidebat, incidit ‘incised’. Used of an engraver, and a more reliable indication than sc. that the print is indeed an engraving.

in., inv., invt., invenit, inventor ‘invented’ or ‘inventor’. Used of the original artist whose image is being reproduced.

lith., litho., lithog. [etc.] An unreliable term, which can refer either to the person who created the image on the stone or to the person who printed it from the stone.

on stone by Used of the artist or craftsman who drew the image on the stone for a lithograph.

ph. sc., photosculpsit ‘photo-engraved’. Occasionally used in the late nineteenth century of the craftsman or firm responsible for the complex task of creating a process plate or block.

pinx., pinxt., pinxit, ping., pingebat ‘painted’. Used of the artist whose original painting the print reproduces. If a draughts man is also credited (see del.), he will have copied the painting to provide the more portable image from which the print was actually made.

restituit to signify retouching or restoring the plate. Lafreri, for instance, uses this term

sc., sculp., sculpsit, sculpt., sculpebat ‘carved’. The most unreliable of all terms on a print. Originally used for pure engravings, it was continued on line engravings which were usually more etched than engraved. It was adopted, almost invariably in the shortest form of sc., by wood engravers in the nineteenth century; and since these were the craftsmen who later took on the production of line blocks and halftone blocks, the commercial successors of the wood engraving, the term can still be found on these process prints into the early twentieth century, in three-colour work as well as monochrome. Such blocks were admittedly finished with the graver, but by then that was the only element of ‘carving’ which remained. At another extreme the term was sometimes used to indicate genuine carving, and prints reproducing Renaissance sculpture can be found which boast ‘Michelangelo sc.’.

GREAT BRITAIN. Published according to Act of Parliament (From 1735).
FRANCE. Cum privilegio Regis (CPR) or Avec Privilége du Roi (APDR) (until 1792); Déposé à la Bibliothèque Royale or Nationale (1815 onwards).
GERMANY. Cum privilegio Sacrae Caesaris Maiestatis (CPSCM). (Used in the area within the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Emperor).
ITALYy. (a) Superiorum permissu or Con licenza de’ superiori (Used by the ecclesiastical censorship in Rome; although privileges were granted, this in itself does not imply one).(b) Cumn privilegio Eccellentissimi Senatus (CPES). (A Venetian privilege).
AMERICA. Entered according to Act of Congress.

Appresso ‘At the house of’ (Italian).
Apud The Latin for Appresso.
Chez The French version; often in the form se vend chez.
Divulgavit Published.
Excudit, ex., excud. Published; the most common term.
Ex officina From the workshop.
Ex typis ‘From the printing house; often used in Italy.
Formis At the press (Latin) where the printer is also the publisher.
Gedruckt zu Printed by (German). Normally found on German woodcuts.
Per Through.
Sumptibus At the expense of; used of a patron or a publisher.

Where paper thickness varies on a printed sheet for reasons of poor manufacture.

See neat line.

Trench maps from the first and second world wars are very collectible and are becoming more and more sought after. Maps of Malta’s Dwejra or Victoria Lines can be considered to be trench maps.

Where a worm has eaten into a map or book. See also worming.

Official opening of a new map gallery or exhibition.

The reverse or opposite side of the sheet from the image of interest. Many maps from atlases have text on the verso. See also recto.

A map which shows a bird’s eye view of a built-up area such as towns and cities. See bird’s-eye view. See also orthogonal or ichnographic view.

A contrivance with moving parts for making certain astronomical calculations, sometimes made of paper and found in old geographical works. An example is Robert Dudley’s Arcano del Mare, Florence, 1646-47.

See Compass Rose in Maltese.

A large map, typically four or five feet (1.5 m.) on a side, with a top rail and a roller, designed to be displayed on a wall. Many are very decorative. Because wall maps are easily soiled and damaged, many were discarded, and examples of early wall maps are quite scarce and often in bad condition.

When a map has got wax stains from being examined by candlelight.

See compass rose.

See laid lines.

Similar to a woodcut, but the design is engraved on the end grain, resulting in better detail and a somewhat more uniform appearance. Since the size of exposed end grain is limited by the diameter of the tree trunk, it was usually more economical to cut the design on small squares, which can be glued together for final printing. The joint lines are often visible, for example on the views in Harper’s Weekly.

An image made by printing from a wooden block on which a mirror image of the design has been carved. Woodcut maps are most often associated with the earliest days of map-making, up to about 1600, but many examples are found well into the 18th-century and later, often as text illustrations.

Wove paper is paper which does not exhibit any wire marks such as laid paper. If the paper is hand made, the mould is a woven wire mould, and if it is machine-made paper it is produced by means of a dandy-roll. Wove paper came into use around 1800, and is often watermarked with the maker’s name.

Carter, John, ABC for Book collectors, Werner Shaw Ltd, 1994.

Gascoigne, Bamber, How to Identify Prints, Thames & Hudson, 2009.

Griffiths, Antony, Prints and Printmaking: an introduction to the history and techniques, British Museum Press, 1996.

Paolini, Claudio, Glossario delle tecniche artistiche e del restauro, Edizioni Palazzo Spinelli, 2005.

Reinhartz, Dennis, The Art of the Map, Sterling, New York, 2012.

Salamon, Ferdinando, Il conoscitore di stampe, Umberto Allemandi & C., 1986.

R.V. Tooley, ‘Maps In Italian Atlases’, Imago Mundi, III (1939), p.12.

Pflederer, Richard, Finding their Way at Sea, Hes & De Graaf Publishers, Netherlands, 2012.

Soler, William and Albert Ganado, The charting of Maltese Waters, BDL, Malta, 2013.