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Comparison of Different Locations in Mercator's Map Sclavonia, Croatia, Bosnia cum Dalmatiae parte with Those in a Contemporary Map

Mercator’s map Sclavonia, Croatia, Bosnia cum Dalmatiae parte shows a great part of present-day Croatia. The map is also interesting because there are a large number of different editions of it. Another reason for researching the map is that Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, is shown in two different locations in the map. The correct location is indicated with the German name Agram and there is also a city with the Latin name Zagabria near Sisak. The first steps in studying the map were taken by M. Rajaković in her seminar paper at the Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb. Further research was presented at the 25th International Conference on the History of Cartography, Helsinki and 26th International Cartographic Conference in Dresden in 2013. The research results presented in Dresden were about the map’s projection. Equations of the Mercator trapezoidal projection were derived from Mercator’s description from his Atlas sive Cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica Mvndi et fabricati figvra. In Helsinki, we presented generalizations of the Mercator trapezoidal projection to the Collignon, Eckert I and Eckert II projections. A sample of the map from the National and University Library in Zagreb was used (Sign. S-JZ-XVII-5) for the purposes of this paper. The locations of the cities were compared in relation to other cities. If a city was situated in the vicinity of a river, it was also compared in relation to the river. The rivers’ mouths and flows were also compared. Ninety-three locations were identified. Only 21 of them are correctly related to observed rivers and locations. This leads to the conclusion that Mercator's map Sclavonia, Croatia, Bosnia cum Dalmatiae parte is a good example of a nice old map with low accuracy.

Mercator; Sclavonia; Croatia; Bosnia cum Dalmatiae parte

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