Abstract
This dissertation on the most detailed maps of Amsterdam is a sequel to the books Maps of Amsterdam, Part I: 1538-1865 and Maps of Amsterdam, Part II: 1866-2012 published in 2013. Central to this third volume are the maps that are most frequently consulted by researchers on the history of
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the city. The criteria for dedicating a chapter to a map is that it had to show individual parcels in the city and that it could be reasonably assumed that the map presented a good contemporary large scale topographic image.
Chapter 1 deals with the motivation for using the 1:2500 scale as the limit for the concept of urban, large-scale, topographic cartography. It also discusses production methods and enters into the ways in which (old) maps and atlases communicated with their users. Also entered into are the most important functions that the mapping of Amsterdam had in the course of over four and a half centuries. Distinguishable are:
• The contemporary function (communicative values; map use).
• The function as a source for historical research.
Individual maps, map series and atlases are discussed in: Chapter 2 (maps of Amsterdam of Cornelis Anthonisz. (1544), Pieter Bast (1597) and Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode), Chapter 3 (draft allocation maps of Amsterdam (1586-1769), Chapter 4 (the 18th-century ’burgerwijkkaarten’ (civil district maps), Chapter 6 (An atlas with the division of the city of Amsterdam in 50 districts, 1850), Chapter 7 (a manuscript atlas of 1851-1852 with the house numbers of 1853), Chapter 8 (the atlas of Amsterdam, published by J.C. Loman jr., 1876), Chapter 10 (the manuscript map series of the ‘Bouw- & Woningtoezicht’ (Building Control Department, 1902 – ca. 1990), Chapter 11 (Map of Amsterdam, scale 1:1000 (1909) and Chapter 12. Production during wartime (WW2): Map of Amsterdam, scale 1:2500 (1939-1957).
Chapters 5, 9 and 13 are arranged differently. Chapter 5 focusses on the 1832 ‘minuutkaarten’ (original cadastral sheets) of central Amsterdam. These thirty-three sheets were executed under the direction of the Dutch government as part of a nationwide mapping, so it was not a local initiative. For these reasons, this important large-scale mapping was approached not from the state, but rather from the municipal, perspective. Central to this stands the role of the popularly called ‘Amsterdamse Gemeentekadaster’ (Amsterdam Municipal Land Registry Office). Chapter 9 is especially dedicated to the third quarter of the nineteenth century, a period in which we would expect to find large-scale cartography, but where it appears to be absent. Chapter 13 presents a comparison of the large-scale cartography of Amsterdam with that of several West European cities.
In Chapter 14 conclusions are mentioned above concerning the dating of images, the moment of publishing a map and on the model function that cadastral maps had for large-scale urban mapping later in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Another conclusion of this study is that scales of pre-cadastral maps were subordinated to the desired dimensions and details of the map to be made. From 1850 onwards, maps in Amsterdam appeared whose scales were decided beforehand (e.g. 1:1000, 1:1250, 1:2500, 1:5000 and 1:10,000). Research in several collections proved they have no equivalents of the Amsterdam series of ‘draft allocation maps’ and ‘civil district maps’. Even though the research was not extended to all the collections of all West European cities, it seems possible to conclude that Amsterdam is the only city that has available these large-scale maps. In this respect it is not an exaggeration to propose that Amsterdam is unique in the world.
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