Cartography as translation: The map production of eighteenth-century French 'armchair geographers'

有影响力的法国地理学家纪尧姆·德莱尔（1675-1726）、菲利普·布阿凯（1700-1773）和让-巴蒂斯特·布吉尼翁·昂维尔（1697-1782）称自己为“内阁地理学家”。他们的共同之处在于他们的方法是根据广泛收集的书面资料来绘制地图，而不是亲自访问有关国家并对其进行调查。这些地理学家的工作包括，首先，在收集各种信息和文件，包括地图，游记，历史著作，信件，表格，和口头证词的旅行者谁是他们的个人接触。下一步是批判性地评估收集到的资料，通过比较它们，将它们作为相互校正的工具，并最终将它们合并。这一方法涉及多个层面的翻译过程。首先，必须将外文文本、名称和表达方式，例如拉丁文或西班牙文的文本、名称和表达方式译成法文。第二，必须调和不同历史时期的数据，必须根据较新的知识翻译较旧的账户。第三，符号间翻译是必要的，因为评价过的地理材料来自不同的媒体，必须翻译成共同的“制图语言”。第四，有必要根据法国地理学家和（或）其雇主的利益和要求，调整源自具体地方背景（例如传教士背景）的知识。尤其是土著知识的翻译，对这些地理学家来说往往是一个挑战。这个项目将探讨十八世纪法国地图制作的翻译过程。为此，将分析巴黎的大量档案材料，包括上述“纸上谈兵的地理学家”Delisle、Buache和d 'Anville的资料来源、信件和回忆录。其主要目的是利用对翻译过程的关注来说明地图制作中所采用的文化技术的复杂性，因为这种复杂性通常由于对数学和技术因素的片面关注而被置于背景位置。从这个意义上说，地图学不应被理解为一个独立于其他知识生产形式的领域，而应被理解为早期现代翻译文化的一个组成部分。

The influential French geographers Guillaume Delisle (1675-1726), Philippe Buache (1700-1773) and Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville (1697-1782) referred to themselves as 'géographes de cabinet'. What they had in common was their method of composing maps on the basis of extensive collections of written sources instead of visiting the countries in question and surveying them in person. The work of these geographers consisted, first of all, in collecting information and documents of various kinds, including maps, travelogues, historiographic works, letters, tables, and oral testimonies of travellers who they were in personal contact with. The next step was to critically evaluate the collected sources by comparing them, using them as correctives against each other, and ultimately conflating them. This approach involved processes of translation on many levels. Firstly, foreign-language texts, names and expressions, for instance Latin or Spanish ones, had to be translated into French. Secondly, data from different historical periods had to be conciliated, and older accounts had to be translated in accordance with more recent knowledge. Thirdly, intersemiotic translations were necessary, since the evaluated geographic material originated in different media, and had to be translated into a mutual “cartographic language”. Fourthly, it was necessary to adapt knowledge which originated in specific local contexts, for example missionary contexts, for the interests and requirements of French geographers and/or their employers. The translation of indigenous knowledge, especially, often proved a challenge for these geographers. This project will explore processes of translation in eighteenth-century French map production. For this purpose, a broad range of archival material in Paris, including the collections of sources, correspondence, and mémoires of the above-mentioned “armchair geographers” Delisle, Buache und d’Anville will be analysed. The main aim is to utilise the focus on processes of translation to illustrate the complexity of the cultural techniques employed in map production, since this complexity is often relegated to a background position due to the usual one-sided focus on mathematical and technical factors. In this sense, cartography is not to be understood as a field which was separate from other forms of knowledge production, but as an integral component of early modern cultures of translation.