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The European Historic Towns Atlas project: success and challenges (with particular reference to the Irish Historic Towns Atlas)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2018
Abstract:
The European Historic Towns Atlas project, probably the largest one in European urban history, is conceptually rooted in national histories. Methodologically it is focused on the production and interpretation of large-scale maps primarily for the understanding of urban morphogenesis and the role of morphological agents but also of issues connected with the economic and cultural aspects of urban life. The atlas project now involves 19 countries and with over 520 towns produced across Europe, pioneer comparative urban studies have been published. Comparative work based on theoretical underpinning is the aim of the project and though it holds great potential, it also faces challenges: access to published towns, language barriers and consistency between national productions. It is argued that the digital production of the atlases may provide a chance for a more unified approach in the future.
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References
1 A full list of all atlas publications can be found on the website of the Royal Irish Academy: www.ria.ie/research-projects/irish-historic-towns-atlas/european-project.
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3 Most countries as for example Austria (with the exception of the series of maps on Vienna) published one national atlas. In Germany, the historic town atlases were published in Münster, where simultaneously the Westphalian atlas (Westfälischer Städteatlas, now Historischer Atlas westfälischer Städte) is published. The Rheinische Städteatlas is produced in Bonn, the Hessische Städteatlas in Marburg and the Brandenburgischer Städteatlas in Potsdam. In Poland, the historic town atlases are produced within the framework of three different regional projects in Toruń (former Prussia), Wrocłav (Silesia) and from Cracow (Lesser Poland). Work is also in progress on Gdańsk and Kalisz.
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5 The introduction of GIS into the atlas system, which allows for the superimposition of historic maps on the later OS maps, will improve the accuracy of the growth maps in the long run.
6 Erich Keyser published the 11-volume Deutsches Städtebuch (1939−74) with 20 subdivisions that made comparisons between towns easier. It is a kind of urban historical inventory, but not particularly strong on topographical details. This reference book is mainly represented in German-language libraries.
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13 The Commission published the minutes of their early meetings in Cahiers Bruxellois, 1/2 (1956). I owe a set of these minutes to Ferdinand Opll.
14 M. Kapral, Lviv, Ukrainian Historic Towns Atlas, vol. I (Lviv, 2014). It is surprising that in the most recent Ukrainian atlas, Zhovka (Lviv, 2017), the core map is published at the scale 1:2880 (instead of 1:2500).
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16 The revived English atlas is to be congratulated for having Oxbow as their partner and thereby securing a distributor.
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28 Budapest 2012, Dublin 2014, Leicester 2015. See Newsletter of the International Commission for the History of Towns, 34 (2013), 15; 36 (2015), 12–13; 37 (2016), 14. The Newsletter is available online www.historiaurbium.org/index.html (last accessed 13 Jul. 2017).
29 Newsletter of the International Commission for the History of Towns, 36 (2015), 13–14.
30 Chodêjovská, Gearty and Stracke, ‘The “digital turn” of the European Historic Towns Atlas’, 116–19.
32 To date, there have been 28 fascicles published in the Irish scheme including city parts for Dublin (parts I–III) and Belfast (parts I–II). For a full list, see www.ria.ie/research-projects/irish-historic-towns-atlas/about-publications (last accessed 13 Jul. 2017).
33 One example of how the topographical information has been exploited for further study is in Rouse, P., Sport and Ireland: A History (Oxford, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See B. Griffin, ‘Reviews in history’, www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1937 (last accessed 13 Jul. 2017).
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40 Prunty, J. and Clarke, H.B., Reading the Maps: A Guide to The Irish Historic Towns Atlas (Dublin, 2011)Google Scholar. Excerpts on town types are included in IHTA Online, www.ria.ie/irish-historic-towns-atlas-online (last accessed 13 Jul. 2017).
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42 IHTA, Dublin suburbs, no. 1, Clontarf, by C. Lennon (Dublin, 2018), series editors C. Lennon and J. Prunty.
43 Chodêjovská, Gearty and Stracke, ‘The “digital turn” of the European Historic Towns Atlas’.
44 IHTA Digital, www.ria.ie/research-projects/irish-historic-towns-atlas/ihta-digital (last accessed 13 Jul. 2017).
45 IHTA Facebook (1,949 followers), Twitter (1,340 followers). IHTA Online will also be launched as a layer in HeritageMaps.ie (http://heritagemaps.ie, last accessed 13 Jul. 2017) in 2018.
46 IHTA GIS work involves collaboration with the national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey Ireland (www.osi.ie), the national digital repository, Digital Repository of Ireland (http://dri.ie) and the software and services organization ESRI Ireland (www.esri-ireland.ie).
Simms and Gearty supplementary material
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