Edition of old large scale maps
The purpose of the project is to make the oldest large-scale maps of Sweden and the text belonging to them accessible to research and scientific work. One important consequence is that damage and wear to the original maps will be minimized. Most of the maps are kept in the National Land Survey of Sweden (Lantmäteriverkets forskningsarkiv, Gävle). There are also maps in The National Archives of Sweden, the Military Archives of Sweden and other archives. There are approximately 14,000 to 16,000 documents in all. The maps were generally drawn to a scale of 1:5000; but other scales were used - for instance, 1:3333. These maps generally show buildings, infields with their arable and meadow lands, fences and certain forms of vegetation. A systematic description - Notarum Explicatio - is generally appended to the map. Notarum Explicatio usually mentions how many homesteads there are in the village, including information regarding their cameral sizes and land-tenure category.
During the next six years a systematic survey of these maps will be made, including scanning, statistical compilation, a historical GIS of the thematic objects from the map and the Notarum Explicatio. The maps will be stored both in digital files and in paper copies on a scale of 1:1. Finally, descriptions for each collection of maps will be presented as well as a publication concerning Swedish large-scale mapping from the 1630s and 1640s, its background, proceedings and completion.
Clas Tollin, Riksarkivet
2003-2013
Project on National edition of the oldest Swedish geometrical maps has been carried out on behalf of Vitterhetsakademiens committee on historic maps and funded by The
Royal Academy of Letters and The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. The work has been done in collaboration with the Institute for Language and Folklore (SOFI) in Uppsala, National Land Survey (Lantmäteriet) and the National Archives of Sweden.
The project for the older geometric maps took place between 2001 and 2010. The project has been to make the contents of the older geometric maps available for both academia and the public.
National edition of the oldest Swedish geometrical maps is completed and materials both analog and digital have been taken over by the National Archives of Sweden. Since October 2010, there are maps and database of freely available online through the National Archives of Sweden website (www.riksarkivet.se/geometriska).
When the material was transferred to the National Archives of Sweden the project was highlighted in Vetenskapsradion, Vetandets Värld (29 October), P4 Radio Stockholm, TV 4 Godmorgon Sverige and SVT Kulturnyheterna. The project has also been presented in the Nordic Archive News (Nordiskt Arkivnytt) 2010:4 and Hembygdsförbundets skrift Namn och Bygd, Bebyggelsehistorisk Tidskrift 60. 2011
National edition of the oldest Swedish geometrical maps
The large-scale maps were produced during the period 1630-1655. The largest collection of older geometric maps are available at the National Archives of Sweden in Arninge where the maps are stored since the fall of 2009. But even the National Archives of Sweden (Marieberg) and the Military Archives (Krigsarkivet) has several volumes. There are also a number of maps in the regional cadastral archives (Landsarkiv) nowadays housed in the Regional Archives in Härnösand and in private archives. In total, the number of maps are over 12 000. Most of the material is bound in so-called geometric land books (geometriska jordeböcker) but there are also a large number of single maps.
The original maps have been scanned by the Reprographic services at the National
Archives and then stored digitally in the National Archives digital routine for long term storage. Each map image is printed as a scale color copy on archival paper.
Full text on the map and in Notarum Explicatio (the short text description usually located at the map) has been interpreted and transcribed and then systematized and recorded in a database. The maps have coordinates translated into a GIS application with the points made that the information is directly geographic search and manageable at different spatial scales.
The project has been working on a systematic plan of work has included the following elements:
* Inventory of older large-scale maps. Approximately 600 non-previously known maps have thus been found.
* An overview and assessment of each map collection.
* Interpretation and typing of Notarum Explicatio and all the map text. Transcription was carried out by staff with specialist skills.
.* High-resolution scanning of each map. The scan has been at the Reprographic services at the National Archives. A total of 12 000 files. Uncompressed TIF files stored on the National Archives in Marieberg. High-resolution DjVu files have been developed by National Archives of MKC in Fränsta for publishing on the Internet.
* The scanned material has also been delivered in the form of and a color print at a scale of 1:1 on archival paper. Paper copies of the maps are stored in a separate archive and are available to researchers at the National Archives in Marieberg.
* Quantitative and qualitative data from Notarum Explicatio and thematic items from the map has been identified. The objects coordinates have been set in a GIS and systematized in a database GEORG.
* A research-related applications have been built up to bring the data in the coordinate-linked database, GEORG.
DATABASE GEORG
The older geometric maps are comprehensive source that it can not fully be researched manually. The database created in the project has also been a pioneer in the digital management of large amounts of location-bounded historical data. Because all data are associated with the coordinates any aggregations and summaries can be made completely free of administrative divisions. The project created a research-based search form which means that it is now possible for the first time to handle a large amount of this kind of data. Methodically, the National Edition and its database is at the forefront of the coordinate-bound historical data. The results could be used in a wider context of an overall historical infrastructure where such as medieval charters and sixteenth century cadastres and similar sources.
With regard to accessibility The Swedish Research Council grant an amount for 2009 and 2010 to transfer GEORG to a historical GIS on the Internet (VR 825-2007-7437). The entire database is from October 2010 available as Open Access through the National Archives of Sweden website. (www.riksarkivet.se/geometriska).
The material can be searched as follows:
View map collections. Taken together, these are 100 map collections that are sorted by region (landskap).
Find settlement unit through a register. All villages and single farms that have a geometric map from 1630 to 1655 in the register in alphabetical order. The search can be limited to parish, hundred and province or your own keywords.
Find settlement unit by map/Google Maps. All settlement units and approximately 15 map objects, including farms, mills, churches are included.
Search for words or phenomena in the map's text. Full text on the maps and Notarum Explicatio (map characters and text description) has been interpreted and transcribed. The search follows surveyor spelling.
Search place names. The registry is under construction. Institute for Language and Folklore in Uppsala (SOFI) has excerpted various names.
2003-2010 MAP OF THE MONTH
Between 2003 and 2010 the project published short articles entitled Map of the Month. Altogether, it has become nearly 100 popular scientific articles highlighting the older geometric maps from different angles. (www.riksarkivet.se/kartor).
The Expert Group
During the project two expert group meetings a year held. The Expert Group has representatives from the map project, the National Archives of Sweden, The
Royal Academy of Letters, The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, SOFI, National Heritage Board, National Land Survey and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) participated.
RESEARCH
Pia Nilsson at the divison of Agrarian History at SLU have been using the project database, then still under construction, and other source material in her thesis on agriculture complementary resources during 1600's first half: Beyond the fields and meadows. Incidence and significance of mills, fisheries, hops and orchards under the older geometrical maps (about 1630-1650). Doctorial Thesis. SLU Uppsala 2010th In conjunction with this database could be trimmed and adjusted to actual research needs. Pia Nilsson's research was largely funded by The Royal Academy of Letters.
Else-Marie Karlsson Strese and Clas Tollin in the project Genetic diversity and relationships of Swedish hops (Humulus lupulus) with respect to legal, cadastral and economic footprint in the Swedish agrarian history. Formas 2006-2008.
Janken Myrdal, together with Olof Karsvall: Utjordar in geometrical maps and land registers - a new perspective on agrarian crises during the late Middle Ages and the 1600s. The Swedish Research Council 2009 to 2012
Rasmus Ludvigsson
In addition to the National Edition has a special grant received by the Academy of Letters in order to make Eliz Lundin manuscript: Sweden in map sketches and texts from the 1550s - about Rasmus Ludvigsson mapping in the 1550's. The material can be accessed online through the National Archives of Sweden website.
CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS
The conference National Edition of the Oldest Geometrical Maps 27-28 November 2003. (Funded by The Royal Academy of Letters).
15 to 16 October 2008, the conference was a two-day seminar for some 20 researchers from several scholarly disciplines (Funded by The Royal Academy of Letters). Project staff presented potential research in different disciplines followed by a workshop at the National Archives, Marieberg where the seminar participants were given the opportunity to do their own searches and to test the database GEORG with their own research questions.
On the initiative of the geographer and the project leader prof. Dr. Reinhard Zölitz, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald was a one-day workshop with participants from the map National Edition project; Edition Schwedische Landesaufnahme Western Pomerania, the universities of Greifswald and Rostock.
Contacts were also made by Mag. Dr.. Kurt Scharr from Geographia Innsbruck, Leopold-Franzens-University, dr. Michael Busch in Rostock and Alexander Dmitriev at the St. Petersburg University. In addition, geometrical land book of Karl Gustav Wrangel counties in North Karelia aroused great interest among Finnish researchers.
At the conference "The Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape" (PECSRL) in Berlin, September 2006. Olof Karsvall and Pia Nilsson presented research result related to the older geometric maps.
Olof Karsvall demonstrated the database GEORG at the "Kartdagarna" in Jönköping 2007.
At the conference "The Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape" (PECSRL) in Lisbon and Óbidos in Portugal, 1 to 5 September 2008th presented Clas Tollin '17th century large-scale maps as a historical source "and Olof Karsvall" 17th century large-scale maps as a source to the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis c. 1350-1420".
Mats Höglund attended on "Kartdagarna" in Jönköping 16-18 April 2008, and the Book and Library Fair (Bokmässan) in Gothenburg September 25 to 28 2008th
Clas Tollin presented the large-scale maps in a presentation called, the National Edition of the older geometric maps on the Regional Archives in Uppsala, 15 October, 2008.
Olof Karsvall gave a presentation on his research topic "Utjordar in the older geometric maps, ca 1633-1650" at Uppsala senior seminar in Agrarian History, November 12, 2008.
Clas Tollin gave a speech on "Location-bounded historical databases by coordinates" at the conference, humanities infrastructure, in Stockholm November 11 to 12, 2008.
Clas Tollin and Olof Karsvall presented projects results on the "14th International Conference of Historical Geographers' in Kyoto University 23rd-27th August 2009.
Clas Tollin, Kristofer Jupiter and Olof Karsvall presented the project and research results on "The Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape" (PECSRL) 24 th session in Riga and Liepaja, 23-27 August 2010.
Publications
Nationalutgåva av de äldre geometriska kartorna. Konferens i Stockholm 27-28 november 2003. Red Birgitta Roeck Hansen. Konferenser 57. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitetsakademien.
Tollin C, 2007. ”När Sverige sattes på kartan” ingår i: Kartlagt land. Kartan som källa till de areella närningarnas geografi och historia. Red Ulf Jansson. Skogs och Lantbrukshistoriska meddelanden 40.KSLA.
O. Karsvall. 2007. ”Uninhabited cadastral units on large-scale maps 1630–1655: indicators of late medieval deserted farms?” i Landscape History: 29. Editor. D. Hooke.
Höglund M, Tollin C, Karsvall O, Nilson P, Strese E-M. 2008 1600-talets jordbrukslandskap – en introduktion till de äldre geometriska kartorna (99 sidor). Riksarkivet.
Höglund M, Karsvall O, Tollin C. 2008 ”Egendom på papper fatta” De äldre geometriska kartorna som historisk källa”. Gustav Adolf symposieskrift. Konferensrapport. Kartan i forskningens tjänst . kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur.
Tollin C. 2008 ”De första lantmätarna” Kartan i våra hjärtan. Kartografiska sällskapet 100 år. Kartografiska sällskapet.
Olof Karsvall. Recension av Peter Korsgaard ”Kort som kilde - en håndbog om historiske kort og deres anvendelse” i Arkiv, samhälle och forskning 2008:1
Karlsson Strese, E.-M., Karsvall, O. and Tollin, C., 2010: Inventory methods for finding historically cultivated hop (Humulus lupulus L.) in Sweden. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution: 57, 219-227
Karsvall O, Nilsson P.2010 ”Bortom åker och äng - de äldsta lantmäterikartorna berättar” Knycklar tillkunskap om människans bruk av naturen. KSLA, CBM