2015, Vol.15, No.2

Journal of the Korean Cartographic Association 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.34

pISSN : 1598-6160
https://journal.kci.go.kr/jkca

The purpose of this study is to explore the geographical information of East Asia represented in Catalan atlas. The labels in Catalan were translated and interpreted. As a result, it was assured that the travels of Marco Polo, John Mandeville, Friar Odoric, and Ibn Battutah were referenced. The regional information with travel story references were relatively accurate, and regions not in travel stories had ancient sources and legends as references. the Monstrous races were refuged in East Asia. Literature research led to the result that the place name ‘Caulij’ referred in Taprobana was actually representing Korea. But in Taprobana, information about Ceylon, Sumatra, Japan and Korea were mixed. The use of the annotation of catalan atlas in humanistic approach was also commented.

Korea had experienced the recession of the map publishing and cartography from 1945 of liberation to 1954, one year after Korean War in Korea. Korea could not have an independent interest on mapping about national territory for approximately 10 years due to a series of the periods of liberation, under-control of the U.S.A. military government, and Korean War. The only map used at that time was one for the military of the U.S.A. The most popular map open in the online is now located in the University of Texas at Austin and was produced by the Army Map Service in 1946 and 1951. The map of the military government in the U.S.A. re-edited by using UTM coordinate system in 1951 is a rare and so valuable document. It provides very useful information for the research on the military operations and the changes in geomorphology and urban landscape in Seoul. The purpose of this study is to analyze the Seoul map produced by the Army Map Service in 1951 bibliographically. Thus, firstly this study simply investigates the development process of the military map. Secondly, the maps of the military government in the U.S.A. will be compared. Thirdly, the basic components of the maps will be investigated by coordinate system, scale, direction, projection, geographic name, administrative unit, legend, source, application, and meaning of hand-written marking. In the near future, this study on the maps of the military government in the U.S.A. will be the research bases for land cover and use, geomorphic change, and urban landscape in Seoul.

The quality and quantity of Korea-related geographic information marked on the modern European maps increased when the Huangyu quan lan tu (Atlas of the Chinese Empire) was translated and introduced to Europe by D’Angvil. Since the late 18th century, the findings from coastal and waterway survey by France, the UK and Russia were reflected in the maps, as the geographic information including the shape of the peninsula and place names became richer. In particular, the exploration by the European ships on coastline and islands resulted in large increase of exotic place names following their native languages. Place names in earlier maps were romanized after Chinese pronunciation, however, introduction of 「Chosonjeondo」 drawn by St. Kim Taegon Andrea seemed to be the beginning of the spread of place names with faithful Korean pronunciation to Europe. The map of Stieler (1872) is the firm evidence of that trend. The spread of English representation was the contribution of both diplomats Ernest Sato and Koto Bunjiro who wrote “An Orographic Sketch of Korea”.