Linda Koistinen

Final Project PresentationElluminate SessionDecember 6, 2009

Robert Whitaker’s The Mapmaker’s Wife,

Two Stories: One of Love, One of ScienceThe Real Story: Exploration

By Linda Koistinen

The Mapmaker’s Wife

The setting •Quito, in Alta Peru , 1735, a colony of Spain

The Romance• Isabel Gramesón, a young woman from a colonial Peruvian family

•Jean Godin, a French scientist on an expedition to Peru

Their Story •Love, losses, their 20-year separation, and Isabel’s journey across the continent to be reunited with her husband.

From The Mapmaker’s Wife by Robert Whitaker

Drawings done by Bouguer, one of three expedition leaders. Reference Link

Much more than the story of Isabel and Jean, it is a story of science, mathematics, geography, and discovery.

Quadrant : Reference LInk

Quest for a Cosmology: Cartesian

Was the earth prolonged at the poles and pulled in at the equator?

Descartes proposed a cosmology of vortexes to explain the forces which keep the earth, moon, sun and other celestial objects moving together which indicated just that. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/

bpt6k54039304.image.r=Bouguer.f722.langEN#

Quest for a Cosmology: Newtonian

…or Did gravity

control the movements of objects in the cosmos and because of gravity earth, like Jupiter, was flattened at the poles?

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54039304.image.r=Bouguer.f722.langEN#

To understand the importance and the work of the expedition…Imagine a world in which no human had seen the earth from space…

http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/earth_worldbook.html

…in which the shape of earth was unknown…

The Earth and Moon http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/

…Imagine the maps made by people in Medieval Europe who used no measurement or scale in their drawings…

http://bell.lib.umn.edu/map/PORTO/CAN/index89.html

Portolan Chart of Pietro Vesconte, c. 1320-1325Indicating directional lines and flags of political

powershttp://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/results.asp?image=056816&imagex=64&searchnum=0001

The Ancient Greeks

Pythagoras in the 6th century BC proposed a round earth freely floating in space.

Aristotle in the 4th century BC provided evidence for this proposal Eratosthenes, Librarian of The Royal Library at Alexandria c. 235 BC, estimated the earth’s circumference and by doing so established the method by which La Condamine, Bouguer, Godin, and the rest of the expedition in Peru were to conduct their mission to measure the distance of 3° of latitude at the equator.

Ptolemy87-150 AD

Claudius Ptolomaeus, Roman of Greek origin•Astronomer, Cartographer, Mathematician•Place: The Library at Alexandria, Egypt•Era: Roman Rule 2nd Century A. D.•Created a map that depicted a spherical world on a flat surface.

http://bell.lib.umn.edu/map/PORTO/CHAR/windpix.html

The Route to Quito •In 1735, the French L’academie Royale des Sciences…1735 The Academie’s expedition to Peru was commissioned by King Louis XV to measure 3°s of arc at the equator.•Louis XV of France wrote to his “Dear Uncle” Phillip V of Spain for passports for the 10 French scientists•May 16, 1735, the Portefaix set sail•June 22, 1735…Martinique (Fr.)•July 11…Saint Domingue (Fr.)•November 16…Cartagena (Sp.)•By December 29…Panama City •Feb. 22 …sailed from Panama• March 9, 1936… Manta•Guayaquil•May 29…Quito

Map by Sieur d'Anville Anville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d '(1697-1782). Reference Link

Pierre Bouguer, Louis Godin, and Charles Marie de La Condamine: Leaders of the Expedition of 10 French Scientists

•Young Spanish military officers, ages 19 and 22•Appointed by the Spanish government to monitor the French scientists•Well-educated•Intellectually curious•Became important contributors to the scientific effort The title page of one of the books Juan and Ulloa

wrote regarding the expedition to Peru.

Jorge Juan y Santacilia and Antonio de Ulloa

A Time of Discovery and Scientific Pursuit•Members of the Expedition traversed the countryside to learn about its topography•its flora and fauna•and to complete the primary task of their work: to prove the shape of the earth as either a spheroid prolonged at the poles or a sphere flattened at the poles

Map of the Province of Quito in Péru done for M. La Condamine by Don Pedro Maldonado (Link)

Map of Quito by La Condamine (Reference Link)

The Baseline•The expedition set up the baseline by creating a series of triangles.•The triangles were laid out to run exactly north and south.•The men worked to do this over the rugged terrain of the lower Andes near Quito.

Map of triangles of the meridian of Quito. From a book by Pierre Bouguer. Reference Link.

Records Kept During the Baseline Measurement by Jorge Juan and Antonio de

Ulloa

Historic voyage from South America made by order of the King of Spain. Volume 2, by Juan and Ulloa (Reference Link)

Drawings by Juan and Ulloa

Voyage Historique De L’America Meridionale Fait Par Ordre Du Roi D’Espagne

The Outcome of the Expedition

3°s of arc at the equator were measured.

The distance between one degree and the next at the equator was proven to be longer than a degree of arc in France.

Newtonian physics had prevailed over Cartesian and earth was proven to be a sphere with slightly flattened poles.

Many more discoveries were brought back to France with the expeditioners who returned.

ReferencesAcademie des sciences. (n.d.). Institute de France Academie des sciences

Notices biographiques. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from Academie des sciences: http://www.academie-sciences.fr/ama/appendice.pdf

Anville, S. d. (1749). Road Map of Mr. de la Condamine both by sea and land in the trip to Ecuador . Retrieved November 22, 2009, from Gallica, digital library of the Bibliotheque nationale de France: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b5963478k.r=La+Condamine.langFR

Cassini, J.-D. (2009). Illustrations of new discoveries in the world of Jupiter made at the Royal Observator, 1690. Retrieved December 2, 2009, from Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliotheque nationale de France: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54039304.image.r=Bouguer.f722.langEN#

Condamine, C. M. (2009). [Illustrations of Journal of Travel done by order of the king to Ecuador as an introduction to the historical position of the first three degrees of longitude ...] / [Non identifié]; The CondamineAut. text . llustrations of Journal of Travel done by or. Retrieved November 21, 2009, from Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliotheque de France: http://gallica.bnf.fr/Search?q=La+Condamine&p=1&lang=fr&ArianeWireRechercheHaut=palette

ReferencesCurator: Florence Registry -- Academy of Sciences - 23 Quai de Conti - 75006

PARIS . (2009). Fund Charles Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774). Retrieved November 18, 2009, from Academie des Sciences Paris: www.academiesciences.fr/archives/fonds_archives/Condamine/archives_Condamine_oeuvre.htm

D'Anville, M. d. (1751). Carte de la Province de Quito au Pérou. Retrieved November 22, 2009, from Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliotheque nationale de France: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b5905917k.r=La+Condamine.langFR

Descartes, R. (2009). Illustration de Principia philosophiae, Les tourbillons de Descartes, 1644. Retrieved November 22, 2009, from Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliotheque nationale de France:

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54039304.image.r=Bouguer.f722.langEN#

Google. (2009). Imagery TerraMetrics, NASA Map data, Google, Tele Atlas, embedded in . Retrieved November 2, 2009, from Google Earth/Maps : http://clients.alexandria.ucsb.edu/globetrotter/

References

Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology: PHOTOJOURNAL. (2009). Retrieved November 6, 2009, from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration): http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Earth

Juan, J. a. (2009). Voyage historique de l'Amérique méridionale fait par ordre du roi d'Espagne. Tome 2 / ,par don George Juan,... et par don Antoine de Ulloa,... ouvrage... qui contient une histoire des Yncas du Pérou et les obsérvations astronomiques et physiques faries p. Retrieved November 23, 2009, from Gallica, the digital library of the BnF (Bibliotheque nationale de France): http://gallica.bnf.fr/Search?q=George+Juan&p=1&lang=fr&ArianeWireRechercheHaut=palette

Kirvan, A. P. (1997). Unit 014 Latitude and Longitude. Retrieved December 4, 2009, from NCGIACore Curriculum in Geographic Information Science:

http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/education/curricula/giscc/units/u014/u014.html#5.2

References

La Condamine, C. M. (1749). Illustrations of Journal of Travel done by order of the king to Ecuador as an introduction to the historical position of the first three degrees of longitude ...] . Retrieved November 22, 2009, from Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliotheque nationale de France: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b2600121t.item.r=La+Condamine.f5.legendes.langFR

Library of Congress Exhibit, Rome Reborn: TheVatican Library and Renaissance Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2009, from Library of Congress: http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/About.html

National Geographic Society. (2009). National Geographic Maps Atlases Puzzles. Retrieved November 9, 2009, from National Geographic: From: http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps/atlas/puzzles.html

Ptolemy. (2009). Retrieved November 30, 2009, from NNDB Tracking the entire world: http://www.nndb.com/people/035/000029945/

References

Regents of the University of California maintained by Earth Sciences and Map Library, UC Berkeley. (2009). Electronic Resources. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from Earth Sciences & Map Library Map Collection: www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/MapCollections.html#electronic

Regents of the University of California, UCSB Libraries. (c 2004). Retrieved December 1, 2009, from http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/

Regents of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, University Libraries. (1999-2001). Portolan Charts. Retrieved November 22, 2009, from James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota: http://bell.lib.umn.edu/map/PORTO/porto.html and http://www.bell.lib.umn.edu/index.html

Regents of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, University Libraries. (1999-2001). Ptolemy's World. Retrieved November 22, 2009, from James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota: http://bell.lib.umn.edu/map/PTO/BIO/indexptl.html

ReferencesSieur d'Anville Anville, J. B.-1. (1749). Road Map of Mr. de la Condamine both

by sea and land in the trip to Ecuador. Retrieved November 22, 2009, from Gallica, digital library of Bibliotheque nationale deFrance: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b5963478k.r=La+Condamine.langFR

The British Library Board. (2009). Images Online: Beatus world map. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from The British Library: http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/results.asp?image=002704&imagex=25&searchnum=0002

The British Library Board. (2009). Images Online: Map of the world taken from Maps for the Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis, Venice, c. 1320-1325. Retrieved December 2, 2009, from The British Library: http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/results.asp?image=009107&imagex=47&searchnum=0002

The British Library Board. (2009). Learning Mapping Minds: Ptolemy's World Map, 1482. Retrieved December 2, 2009, from The British Library: www.bl.uk/learning/artimages/mappingminds/minds/ptolemysmap/ptolemy.html

References

The British Library Board. (2009). Online Gallery: The World Map from the "Map "Psalter". Probably London or Westminter, c. 1265. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from The British Library:

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/mapsviews/psalter/large17693.html

The British Library Board. (2009). Online Images: Portolan Chart, Pietro Vesconte, c. 1320-1325. Retrieved December 2, 2009, from The British Library: http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/results.asp?image=056816&imagex=64&searchnum=0001

Whitaker, R. (2004). The Mapmaker's Wife. New York: Bantam Dell, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Yale University. (2009, June). Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library- Portolan Charts. Retrieved October 7, 2009, from Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/portolan.html