26 old maps laid on the real earth, from 1516 to 1894. Drag the wheel and watch where each mapmaker lettered the word Tartary and what ground he gave it: it arrives, swells, splits, shrinks and is gone. Lift the sheet and the outline stays behind on today's map.
The word Tartary, where it is letteredThe ground the sheet gives it, by a drawn or coloured limitThe same, where no limit is drawn: a reading of the letteringTartars, as a people or a seaOther big namesPress a name to find it. Lift the sheet to see the outlines on today's map.
1253 to 1255 · William of Rubruck · No map: a journey
William of Rubruck rides from the Black Sea to the Mongol court at Karakorum and back, and writes of the Tartars as a people on the move, with their tents, carts and herds. The line is his road. On the world maps of his century in this atlas, the word is not yet lettered as a country.
The line joins the stops of his journey. It is not the exact road.
about 1300 · Hereford Cathedral · The Hereford world map
The largest medieval world map to survive was drawn while the first reports from the Mongol courts were already in Europe, yet it carries none of them. Its northern Asia is still Scythia, with Gog and Magog walled in by Alexander. It is a round picture of the world with east at the top, so it cannot be laid on the real earth. Open it to see.
No sheet lies on the earth at this stop.
about 1450 · Unknown maker · The Borgia world map
One of the earliest maps to letter Tartaria as a region, with a note explaining it and little pictures of Tartar wagon camps, and with Gog and Magog set close by. It is engraved on a round metal plate with south at the top, so it cannot be laid on the real earth either. Open it to see.
No sheet lies on the earth at this stop.
1516 · Martin Waldseemüller · Carta marina, sheet 3
[Carta marina navigatoria Portugallen navigationes ...] sheet 3
This sheet letters TARTARIA three times. The largest stands on the steppe north of the Caspian Sea, over the tent of the khan, and two more east of the Caspian are tied to older country names: TARTARIA CORASINE (Khwarezm) and TARTARIA TORQVESTEN (Turkestan). North of the Sea of Azov the plain is called CAMPESTRIA TARTAR, and note after note across the sheet says that Russians, Armenians and Persians live under the Tartars.
The whole sheet at the Library of CongressThis map in the atlas
Laid on the earth by 39 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 182 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 596 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1562 · Anthony Jenkinson · Russia, Muscovy and Tartary
RVSSIAE, MOSCOVIAE ET TARTARIAE DESCRIPTIO. Auctore Antonio Ienkensono Anglo, edita Londini Anno 1562 & dedicata illustriss. D. Henrico Sydneo Wallie…
The word TARTARIA is lettered once, in big letters spread one by one across the open steppe from the Don and lower Volga eastward past the Yaik toward the country above Tashkent. It is not divided into parts; smaller names such as Nagaia, Cassacki, Turkmen and Kirges sit inside and around it, and the far north is given to the Samoyeds instead. A note beside Samarkand calls that city the former capital of all Tartary.
The whole sheet at the Library of CongressThis map in the atlas
Laid on the earth by 47 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 127 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 676 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1570 · Abraham Ortelius · Tartary, or the kingdom of the Great Khan
TARTARIAE SIVE MAGNI CHAMI REGNI typus
Ortelius letters TARTARIA once, in large capitals across the steppe north-east of the Caspian, and adds in small script that it takes in Asiatic Sarmatia and both Scythias of the ancient writers. He does not divide it into Great, Little or Chinese Tartary; the rest of the country is filled with the names of hordes and with Marco Polo's kingdoms such as Tangut, Camul, Tenduc and Cathay, all of them, by the title and the note in the lower cartouche, under the Great Khan.
The whole sheet at the Library of CongressThis map in the atlas
Laid on the earth by 35 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 247 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 1,502 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
about 1600 · Arnoldo di Arnoldi · Map of Asia
ASIA
Arnoldi letters TARTARIA once, in the largest capitals on the sheet, spread in two groups of letters (TAR and TARIA) across the north of Asia from east of the Ob to a gulf of the northern sea. He draws no border round it and does not split it into Great, Little or Chinese Tartary. A long Italian note between the two groups of letters describes the land of the Tartars as dry, windy, short of towns and mostly Muslim. Around the name he letters hordes in the north, Turchestan, Maurenaher and Zagatai towards the Caspian Sea, and Marco Polo's Bargu, Tangut, Cataio and Mangi towards China, with Moscovia, Russia, Casan and Astracan on the west.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 77 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 242 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 969 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1626 · John Speed · Asia with the islands adjoining
ASIA with the Islands adioyning described, the atire of the people, & Townes of importance, all of them newly augmented by I
Speed letters TARTARIA in large spaced capitals across the country between the Volga and the Ob, running up from north of the Caspian Sea. The word comes back three more times: as a tribe (Kaski Tartari) in the steppe below it, as a town called Tartar in the empty far north-east, and on the water as The Tartarian Sea along the whole Arctic coast. A note beside the Great Wall says it was built against sudden inroads of the Tartars, and one of the costume figures in the border is labelled Tartarian.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 39 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 223 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 1,010 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
about 1657 · Willem Blaeu · Wall map of Asia
NOVA ET EXACTA ASIÆ GEOGRAPHICA DESCRIPTIO, auct
Blaeu letters TARTARIA once, in the largest capitals on the land, one letter at a time from west of the Volga across the Ob to the kingdom of Tangut, with no border line round it. Under it he names Tartar peoples (the Kazakh Tartars and the Kalmuks, "that is, long-haired Tartars"), a Chagatai Tartary by Bukhara, and north of the Black Sea "Crimea, or Perekop Tartary". There is no Siberia as a country, only the town Sibier on the Ob; the north is RUSSIA, SAMOIEDA, Lucomorye and Yugra, and the far east is filled with Marco Polo's names (Tangut, Tenduc, Mongul, Cathay with Cambalu) and a town and river called Tartar. A note on the Great Wall says it was built against the raids of the Tartars, and the printed text in the border calls the country "the empire of the Great Cham, or Tartary".
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 74 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 214 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 955 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
about 1680 · Frederick de Wit · Great Tartary, the Mogul empire, Japan and China
MAGNÆ TARTARIÆ, MAGNI MOGOLIS IMPERII, IAPONIÆ et CHINÆ, Nova Descriptio
The words TARTARIA MAGNA, Great Tartary, are spread one letter at a time across the whole of inner Asia, from the river Ob to the Pacific coast and from the Arctic shore down to the Great Wall of China. Inside that space the sheet names many separate peoples and kingdoms, among them the Kazakh Tartars, Chagatai, Turkestan, the Mongols, Cathay and Tangut, and the Arctic sea above is called the Tartar Sea. Siberia is only a small name by the Ob, and the far north-east is filled with names from Marco Polo and from legend, such as Magog and a town and river called Tartar.
The whole sheet at the Library of CongressThis map in the atlas
Laid on the earth by 49 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 163 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 980 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1700 · Guillaume Delisle · Map of Asia
L'Asie, dressée sur les observations de l'Academie Royale des Sciences et quelques autres, et sur les memoires les plus recens. Par G. de l'Isle…
Delisle letters GRANDE TARTARIE once, in the largest capitals of inner Asia, in a single line from the Volga to the Amur, and then splits that ground by who rules it. Engraved dotted lines mark off TARTARIE MOSCOVITE across the north from the White Sea to the Yenisei and Lake Baikal, TARTARIE INDEPENDANTE from the Caspian to the Mongols (its line also takes in the kingdoms of Tibet), and TARTARIE CHINOISE north of the Great Wall, which carries TARTARIE OCCIDENTALE and TARTARIE OR.LE (Orientale) inside it. PETITE TARTARIE stands apart on the steppe north of the Black Sea, with the Crimea. Inside these he letters peoples and countries of their own, such as SIBERIE, the Samoyeds, Ostyaks, Tungus and Yakuts, the Kalmyks, Uzbeks, TURQUESTAN and the Mongols, and no people on the sheet is called Tartars.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 110 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 119 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 1,309 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1706 · Guillaume Delisle · Map of Tartary
Carte de Tartarie, dressée sur les relations de plusieurs voyageurs de differentes nations et sur quelques observations qui ont été faites dans ce…
Delisle uses Tartary as the name for nearly all of northern and central Asia and splits it by who rules it: Muscovite Tartary across the whole of Siberia, Independent Tartary over the Kalmyk and Uzbek country east of the Caspian, and Chinese Tartary from the Mongol lands to the Pacific, with Western and Eastern Tartary lettered inside the Chinese part. Little Tartary sits apart on the steppe north of the Crimea. Within these broad names the sheet letters kingdoms and peoples of its own, such as the Kingdom of Siberia, the Kalmyks and the Mongols, and it names three smaller groups as Tartars: those of Tyumen, of the Kuban and of Dagestan.
The whole sheet at the Library of CongressThis map in the atlas
Laid on the earth by 40 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 276 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 1,103 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
about 1710 · Johann Baptist Homann · Map of Asia
Asiae Recentissima Delineatio, Qua Status et Imperia Totius Orientis unacum Orientalibus Indiis exhibentur Authore Io. Bapt. Homanno Norimbergae
The largest name in the north is TARTARIA MAGNA, Great Tartary. Its letters start east of the Caspian Sea, cross the green land and carry on over the pink land of Siberia to the eastern sea. Inside the green land a second, smaller name reads TARTARIA VAGABUNDORUM INDEPENDENS, the independent Tartary of the wandering peoples, with Kalmyks, Black and Yellow Mongolia, Chagatai and the Uzbeks lettered in it. The yellow land north of the Great Wall is called CHINA EXTRA MUROS SIVE TARTARIA CHINENSIS, China outside the walls or Chinese Tartary, and TARTARIA MINOR, Little Tartary, sits north of the Black Sea. The pink north is lettered SIBERIA and MOSCOVITICUM, so the Russian lands and Great Tartary overlap on this sheet; the Arctic sea north of the Lena is MARE TARTARICUM GLACIALE, and a people called CIRCASSI TARTARI stand north of the Caucasus.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 86 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 190 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 790 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1739 · Johann Matthias Hase, for the Homann Heirs · The Russian Empire and Tartary, great and little
Carte generale d'Empire de Russie et de Tartarie grande et petite en Europe et Asie.
The titles promise all Tartary, great and little, yet on the map itself the word is used sparingly and is spelled Tataria, without the first r. It is lettered large only twice: Little Tartary north of the Black Sea, and a shortened Tataric. laid over Manchuria under China. Everywhere else it appears only in small notes naming single peoples as Tartars, while the land is lettered Siberia, Yakutia, Turkestan and the Kalmyks.
The whole sheet at the Library of CongressThis map in the atlas
Laid on the earth by 42 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 123 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 424 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
about 1743 · The Homann firm · Map of Asia
Recentissima Asiae Delineatio, Qua Imperia, ejus Regna, et Status, Unacum novissimis Russorum detectionibus circa Mare Caspium et Terram Yedso alias…
Homann letters TARTARIA MAGNA, Great Tartary, in the largest letters on the mainland, from the Irtysh to the Pacific, and this copy washes one yellow colour over everything from the Urals and the Caspian to Kamchatka, so that Siberia, the Kalmyk country and Bukhara all sit inside it. The word IMPERIUM RUSSORUM, Empire of the Russians, runs from Europe across the Urals into the same ground, and SIBERIA is lettered just above Tartaria Magna, so Tartary here is a region with Russian Siberia inside it and not a state. Beyond the Amur, inside the green of the Chinese empire, stands TARTARIA CHINENSIS, Chinese Tartary, and north of the Black Sea TARTARIA MINOR, Little Tartary. The Arctic off the Lena is called MARE TARTARICUM and the Circassians are named CIRCASSI TARTARI.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 122 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 177 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 1,027 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1744 · Johann Matthias Hase · Map of Asia
ASIA secundum legitimas Projectionis Stereographicae regulas et juxta recentissimas observation. et relationes, explosis aliorum fabulosis…
This sheet has no country called Tartary at all, and it spells the word Tatar, without the first r. The only big name that holds the word is REGNVM SINO TATARIC, the Chinese-Tartar Kingdom, spread from the south of China to the Amur: of the nine parts the title promises, this is the only one with a Tartar name, and it means the empire of China under its Manchu rulers. Everywhere else the word is a name for peoples: Crimean, Kuban, Nogai, Ufa and Bashkir Tatars inside or beside Russia, Khivan and Burut Tatars in the middle, Kokonor and Ordos Tatars by China. The north is SIBERIA and IAKVTIA inside the Russian empire, and inner Asia is shared out among Kalmyks, Eleuths, Bukharia, Turkestan, Mongols and Tibet.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 80 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 125 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 679 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
about 1755 · Jean Palairet · Map of Asia
A MAP of ASIA with its Principal DIVISIONS by J. Palaret, with several Additions & Improvements by L. Delarochette.
This sheet letters RUSSIAN TARTARY by the lower Volga, INDEPENDENT TARTARY across inner Asia from the Caspian to Tibet, and CHINESE TARTARY in one long curve from the Great Wall to the Amur, with LITTLE TARTARY north of the Black Sea. A table printed on the map spells the scheme out: Russian Tartary is the kingdoms of Kasan and Astrachan and part of Circassia; Independent Tartary is the Kara Kalpaks, Turkestan, the Usbecs and the Kingdom of the Eluts with both Bukarias and both Tibets; Chinese Tartary is the Western and Eastern Monguls and the Tartars of Kokonor. Everything north of these is RUSSIA IN ASIA and SIBERIA, with its provinces named, and the word Tartary is not used there at all. There is no Great Tartary on this sheet: the name only appears with a ruler's or a people's name in front of it.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 120 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 87 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 660 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1772 · Woodman and Mutlow · Map of Asia, cut up as a puzzle
ASIA, Divided Into Its Empires, Kingdoms and States, with their General Subdivisions. LONDON
This sheet letters the word four times as a country. RUSSIAN TARTARY runs across the yellow Russian country from Tobolsk to the Okhotsk coast, under the name SIBERIA, which is lettered over the same ground further north. CHINESE TARTARY runs across the brown country of the Western and Eastern Mongals, from the Great Wall to the Amur. The bare word TARTARY, in the largest letters, is kept for the uncoloured country between them, from the Caspian to the edge of China, where the sheet also letters KASACCIA HORDA, USBECKS, KHARASM, TURKISTAN, GREAT BUKARIA, LITTLE BUKARIA, KALMUKS and ELUTS. LITTLE TARTARY is a small name north of the Black Sea, and two small notes name peoples: the Tartars of Kokonor and the Mantcheu Tartars who subdued China.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 107 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 119 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 722 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1791 · Carington Bowles · Map of Asia
Bowles's New One-Sheet Map of Asia, divided into its Empires, Kingdoms, States, and other Subdivisions
Bowles letters three large Tartaries and gives each a drawn border. Russian Tartary is only the pink country between the Black Sea, the Volga and the Urals; Independent Tartary is the green-edged country from the Caspian to Hami; Chinese Tartary is the ground north of the Great Wall from Mongolia to the Pacific, inside the pink wash of the Chinese empire. The whole north is lettered RUSSIAN EMPIRE and SIBERIA, with no Tartary in its name, and Little Tartary is a small name north of the Crimea. Inside the Tartaries the sheet names peoples of its own, such as the Kalmucks, Eluths, Usbecks, Kalkas, Mongols and Manchew Tartars. A table in the corner lists Tartary as one division of Asia made of Chinese, Independent, 'Tibet or Mogulean' and Russian Tartary, and lists 'Russ. Tartary' again under Russia in Asia beside Siberia.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 73 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 94 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 328 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1796 · John Wilkes · Modern Asia
MODERN ASIA.
This small sheet writes Tartary only twice. Western Tartary is the pink country between the Caspian and the Gobi, holding Turkestan, Bucharia, the Dzungars and Kashgar, with Tibet coloured as part of the same block. Chinese Tartary is the green country of the Mongols and Manchus north of China, while everything Russian is called Siberia and split into Tobolsk, Yakutsk and other governments with no Tartary name at all.
The whole sheet at the Library of CongressThis map in the atlas
Laid on the earth by 75 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 119 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 532 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1799 · Laurie and Whittle · Map of Asia
ASIA with ITS ISLANDS, and DIFFERENT REGIONS according to THEIR MODERN DIVISIONS
This London sheet still letters the word across most of inner and north Asia. RUSSIAN TARTARY runs along the south of Russian Asia under SIBERIA, in letters of the same size and with no line between the two. TARTARY alone, in the largest letters, crosses a pink country with a dotted border from the Caspian to the Gobi, and inside it stand the Kasaccia Horda, Usbeck, Kharasm, Turkistan, Great and Little Bukaria, the Kalmuks and the Eluts. CHINESE TARTARY, marked off by the same kind of border and split by the words WESTERN and EASTERN, runs on to the Pacific north of the Great Wall, with the Mongals lettered in both halves; LITTLE TARTARY sits north of the Black Sea and the strait beside Saghalien is the CHANNEL OF TARTARY.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 89 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 101 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 477 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1805 · Franz Ludwig Güssefeld · Map of Asia
Charte von Asien, nach den bewährtesten astronomischen Beobachtungen, den neuesten Reisen, und den vorzüglichsten Charten, insonderheit aber der…
The word appears once on this sheet, spelled TATAREY, in seven capitals that run from the east shore of the Caspian across the Aral Sea to the mountains west of Kashgar. A red outline with a pink wash marks its ground: the Turkoman country, Charesm (Khiva), Turkestan, Fergana and GROSS BUCHAREY with Bukhara, Samarkand and Balkh. Everything north of that is lettered RUSSISCHES REICH with WEST-SIBIRIEN and OST SIBIRIEN, and the Kirghiz hordes sit on the Russian side of the line. To the east the old Chinese Tartary is gone: the sheet letters SOONGAREY, KALMUKEY, MONGOLEY, KLEINE BUCHAREY and TIBET, and the Manchu country carries its own province names with no Tartary at all.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 81 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 65 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 272 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1814 · Mathew Carey · Map of Asia
ASIA According to the best AUTHORITIES.
This American atlas sheet uses the word twice, as two bordered countries side by side: WESTERN TARTARY from the Caspian to the edge of the Kobi desert, and EASTERN TARTARY from there to the Sea of Korea, down to the Chinese Wall. Each has a dotted boundary line and its own outline colour. Inside them the sheet letters peoples and districts: Kalmucks, Turkistan, Usbecks and Karacalpacks in the west, Kalkas, Mongols, Daouria, Kitching and Mantcheou in the east. Everything north of the two is RUSSIAN EMPIRE and SIBERIA, with no Tartary in the name, and the only other use of the word is the small Kasatsha Horde Tartars on the steppe.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 80 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 105 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 430 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1818 · John Pinkerton · Asia
ASIA. Drawn under the direction of Mr. Pinkerton by L. Hebert. Neele sculpt. 352, Strand. Published by Dobson Philada.
Pinkerton spells the word Tatary, without the first R, and uses it three times. Independent Tatary lies over the Kirghiz steppe and Bukhara, Chinese Tatary runs in one long line from Khotan through Mongolia and Mandshuria to the Amur, and the strait beside Sakhalin is the Channel of Tatary. North of them there is no Russian Tatary at all: the whole north is Siberia, divided into Russian governments.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 68 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 64 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 523 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1835 · Thomas Bradford · Persia, Arabia, Tartary, Afghanistan
PERSIA, ARABIA, TARTARY, AFGHANISTAN
The word stands twice on this sheet. It is one of the four countries named in the title, and across the steppe the mapmaker spreads INDEPENDENT TARTARY in two long lines, the first from the north Caspian to Lake Balkhash and the second from the Karakum desert past Khiva and Bukhara to the Pamir, all inside one green border that runs from the Ural river round to the Hindu Kush. Inside that border the land is already shared out under other names, Kirguis Country with its three hordes, Turkestan, Kowaresmia and Great Bucharia, while Siberia, Soongaria and Little Bucharia lie outside it.
The whole sheet at the Library of CongressThis map in the atlas
Laid on the earth by 56 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 58 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 309 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1849 · S. Augustus Mitchell · Asia
ASIA.
By 1849 the word Tartary has shrunk to one modest line of spaced capitals in central Asia, running from just west of the Sea of Aral across Khokan to the edge of Soongaria, with no border or colour of its own. It is threaded among the names that have taken its place: Turcomania, Khiva, Great Bucharia, Khokan, Kirguis and Turkestan. Farther east the sheet letters Soongaria, Mongolia, Little Bucharia, Mandshuria and Chinese Empire with no Chinese Tartary at all, and the only other survival is the small Channel of Tartary between Saghalin and the mainland.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 61 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 96 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 452 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
about 1855 · Harper and Brothers · Map of Asia
ASIA
The word TARTARY is lettered once, in plain capitals with no Independent or Chinese in front of it, from the east shore of the Caspian across the Aral Sea to just short of Lake Balkhan (Balkhash). No border is drawn round it and the sheet has no colour; inside it sit KHIVA, BOKHARA, KOKAN, Turcomania and the Kirghiz hordes. The north is RUSSIAN EMPIRE and SIBERIA, and the ground older maps called Chinese Tartary is now CHINESE EMPIRE with MONGOLIA, MANTCHOORIA, TCHOONGORIA and THIAN CHAN NANLOO. Elsewhere the word survives only in small things: the G. of Tartary beside Sagalian, a people called Tartars near Tomsk, and two place names, Tatarsk and Tatar.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 126 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 39 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 313 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
1862 · Johnson and Ward · Johnson's Asia
JOHNSON'S ASIA BY JOHNSON AND WARD.
On this American family atlas sheet of 1862 the country called Tartary is gone. Where older maps spread that name, this one letters TOORKISTAN with Khiva, Bokhara and Khokand, and Siberia, Outer and Inner Mongolia and Manchooria, all inside the Russian Empire and the Chinese Empire. The word survives in only two small places: KIRGHIZ TARTARS, the name of a people on the steppe north of the Aral Sea, and the Gulf of Tartary, the water between Saghalin and the mainland.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 80 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 46 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 590 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
The word is left in 2 small names:
No country on this sheet carries the name, so there is no outline to draw.
1894 · R. Grossmann, Berlin · Asia
ASIEN.
The word Tartary is gone from the land on this German atlas map. The only trace is a small name in the water between the mainland and Sakhalin, Tatar'scher Golf, the Tartar Gulf. Where older maps wrote Tartary, this one writes Russisches Reich and Chinesisches Reich in big spaced letters, with West-Sibirien, Ost-Sibirien, Turkestan, Ost-Turkestan, Mongolei and Mandschurei beneath them.
The whole sheet at the Library of Congress
Laid on the earth by 45 matched places. Left out one at a time, a place lands about 67 km from where it belongs; the worst lands 472 km off. That is the mapmaker's error, kept on purpose.
The word is left in 1 small name:
No country on this sheet carries the name, so there is no outline to draw.
The ground each sheet gives to a country called Tartary, drawn on today's map. 26 sheets, 64 outlines, and they do not agree. Press one to turn the dial to it.
Each sheet is a Library of Congress picture of a printed map. On every one, between 35 and 126 places were matched by an AI reader to where they really are: river mouths, capes, lakes and towns the mapmaker could have known from report. The sheet was then bent, stiffly, so those places fall as near their true spots as the sheet allows. A stiff bend keeps the map looking like itself, so its mistakes stay visible: an oval Caspian, a Siberia squeezed short, towns from Marco Polo set down by guess.
The boxes mark where the word is lettered, traced on each sheet and carried across with it. The larger outlines mark the ground the sheet gives to each country called Tartary. Where the mapmaker engraved a border line, or the sheet is coloured country by country, the outline follows that and is drawn solid. Where he drew no limit at all, the outline is a reading of how far the lettering reaches, carried to the nearest coast, river or neighbouring name, and is drawn dashed. Hand colour was added copy by copy, so an outline that follows colour is true of this copy only. The sizes count only today's dry land under each outline, and are as rough as the sheet: where a map rests on hearsay, the outline is only as good as the map.
Between two stops the dial fades one sheet into the next; nothing is known about the years in between, and where several maps crowd into a few years the scale is eased apart so each can be reached. No person has checked the matched places, the readings or the outlines yet. The many Tartarys counts every map and book in the atlas that uses each name, and How it was made explains the rest.
