Version 4 · 11 October 2026 · Florin-Stefan Morar
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Florin-Stefan Morar compiled this census of 107 cross-cultural maps. Each record identifies one surviving witness, its holding, qualifying translation operation, sources and evidence grade.
Complete images are openly available for 98 entries, including in scholarly reproductions. Two entries have partial coverage, and exact-witness image coverage is not established for seven. This supports corpus selection and hypothesis formation. Targeted collections research will address difficult readings and material questions. Complete coverage does not guarantee sufficient resolution for every inscription or the survival of every original sheet.
Each entry identifies one surviving map in a particular manuscript, edition or state, within ca. 1500–1800. Its holding and a shelfmark, catalogue identifier or uniquely identifying published figure anchor the record. Several sheets making one map count once.
Inclusion requires a specific translation operation between mapping traditions, supported by the object, its paratext or a cited study of that evidence. Colonial location, foreign subject matter and the makers’ backgrounds alone do not qualify a map. Baseline maps and European compilations as whole works are excluded. Every map selected from an atlas is assessed individually.
Each additional copy or derivative must have its own assessed entry to enter the count. Family membership, a shared atlas or a common commission adds no items.
The 107 records comprise 73 documented operations, 29 derivations from identified sources and five inferred relationships. These grades concern the qualifying relationship, not complete COMPASS coding.
| Browsing group | Maps |
|---|---|
| East Asia | 39 |
| West Asian/Mediterranean | 21 |
| Americas | 33 |
| South/Southeast Asia | 7 |
| Pacific | 2 |
| Africa | 5 |
| Total | 107 |
These groups organise the index. They do not define separate traditions or coincide with the project’s eight regional zones. The census is a purposively assembled body of evidence, not a representative estimate of all surviving or historically produced maps. No numerical share of transmission without European mediation is asserted. That question requires reconstruction of source relationships.
Every record supplies its basis for inclusion, attribution, holding and sources. Qualifications such as “attributed to” distinguish evidence from historical inference. A scholarly reproduction may provide an open image without the resolution needed for close reading. The image label distinguishes the counted witness from another copy or a later reproduction. Image coverage is recorded for this dated release and can change at the source institution.
Full COMPASS coding will examine inscriptions, graphic conventions, material form and context. The census identifies a body of material on which that research can begin.
Version 4 removes the introductory paragraph on the directions of cartographic translation at the author’s request. The 107 census records, image-coverage totals, COMPASS illustrations and Hondius review register are unchanged from version 3. Morar, Florin-Stefan. Mapping Encounters: Preliminary Census of Cross-Cultural Maps. Version 4, 11 October 2026. https://morarfs.github.io/CROSS/releases/v4-2026-10-11/.