The forgotten Studio: Art, Timothy Pont, Maps of Scotland

Sunday 26 August 2012

Art, Timothy Pont, Maps of Scotland

Timothy Pont; the first Scottish Cartographer
c.1560 - 1630

To put this into context; the mapping of Scotland happened within the first couple of years of the reign of James VI, until just a few years prior to this James was a minor and a Regent ruled on his behalf.

King James VI of Scotland,
King James I of England
Born on June 19, 1566, in Edinburgh Castle, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots. On her forced abdication in 1567, he was proclaimed King of Scotland, a puppet in the hands of regents and politicians until 1581 when he assumed actual rule of Scotland. It was a country divided by religious conflict between Protestants and Roman Catholics, between those favoring an alliance with France and those supporting England.

This portrait shows James VI of Scotland after he had acceded to the English throne on Queen Elizabeth's death and moved to London. The jewel on his hat, known as the Mirror of Great Britain, was commissioned to commemorate the union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603. One of the diamonds had been a gift to Mary, Queen of Scots, from her father-in-law, the King of France. This painting is based on an official portrait of the king by John de Critz. James disliked sitting for his picture and there are few portraits of him from life.

Eglinton Castle; drawn by Pont.

Timothy Point remains virtually unknown outside specialist academic circles but; what he achieved was quite remarkable. He single-handedly mapped Scotland. He was the first person to draw reliable, detailed and accurate maps of Scotland. These maps are so intricate they need to be viewed through a magnifying glass to fully appreciate the fine detail. His maps were not published in his lifetime and the greatness of his achievement was not recognized until much more recently. Specific details of his life remain sketchy, he seems to be one of the ‘’Forgotten Scots’’ whose great talent and achievements have never been fully appreciated.

He is known to have graduated from St. Andrews University in 1583 before embarking on his ambitious project to record the landscape of Scotland. Over the next 12 years, he produced 77 maps. The ones that have survived and been recovered from obscurity are now held by the National Library of Scotland. They are the oldest maps of Scotland based on an original survey. As part of this project Pont mapped the Roman Antonine Wall, he recorded several forts which have since been demolished. In 1601, (map making apparently finished), he became a minister, in the Parish of Dunnet, Caithness.

Pont's maps were not published during his lifetime but, with the help of his friend Robert Gordon (1580 - 1661), they were used to form the basis of Blaeu's Atlas Novus, Scotland’s first atlas published in 1654.

His father Robert Pont (1524 - 1606) was a ecclesiastic and by the 1590s he was a statesman who gave advice on all matters concerning the Kirk. Timothy studied at St. Andrews University, he graduated in about 1583 and was then made financially secure by his influential father. For some reason he turned away from the Church and set out on his great adventure. It is not known if this was at the request of James VI or the Reformed Church authorities. Either could have needed to record the land and parish settlements made following the reformation. It is know that a young Pont spent the next twelve years or so traveling widely through Scotland recording the land as he saw it. His manuscript drawings are the only surviving record of this unique undertaking.

He must have been what is known today as a risk taker. As far as we know there was very little forward planning. He carried no written directions or permissions, sixteenth century Scottish infrastructure left a whole lot to be desired, he was traveling, asking questions, taking notes and making copious detailed drawings of every thing' all in the midst of post reformation suspicions and unease. He was lucky not to have been imprisoned in one of the many fortified houses he recorded. He traveled by waterway and concentrated on the inhabited areas, towns and buildings. Today his maps are the most reliable source of information concerning the number, position and size of Scotland's castles and large houses. His maps allow us to know how much of our built history we have lost. His tiny drawings of these important buildings hold so much information you can count the number of windows on each and every one of them, and every detail is accurate.

What subsequently happened to these precious drawings is like a detective novel. Before 1629 the whole collection was bought from Pont's heirs by Sir William Balfour of Denmilne, Fife, a historic collector. It’s thought he intended to publish the maps but never did. The Dutch printers, Willem and Joan Blaeu, heard of the manuscripts through Sir John Scot of Scotstarvit, in Fife, and by 1630 they were negotiating for the sale of these maps. Some time after that the originals were sent to Amsterdam to be engraved. Many of the originals turned out to be too fragile to engrave and this meant there are gaps in the coverage of Scotland. Some of Pont's original maps were returned and passed to Robert Gordon of Straloch, Aberdeenshire, who prepared further drafts for Blaeu to print in his "Atlas Novus". Fortunately many original Pont manuscript maps survived their travels in and out of Scotland and are now held in the Map Library of the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

It is difficult to see what a great achievement this is with these few examples, if you go to the web site below you can take your time and go through all the surviving maps and magnify them to see the detail. If you click on the maps here they will magnify and you can see some details, the coloured maps are the ones modified and used for the Atlas but the rougher looking ones .........these are the original hand drawn maps by Pont. I do have more of these saved in an album here

http://www.nls.uk/pont/generalnew.html

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acousticeagle wrote on Nov 23, '08

People who are very interested in the history of a place, a country, would be deeply grateful that this cartographer put all that effort of work into making those maps and records. He may not have achieved much success or appreciation in his lifetime, but works such as these as treasures now.

Thanks very much Loretta, for posting links to my equine art blogs. I was on the net last night and knew you would be posting your Sunday Art blog sometime but you had not done so when I was online then, but through your kind invitation I was going to come around and post the links, but you've done that for me. Thank you!

Also re your comment about snow fall, well, as an Aussie I could not imagine snow falling on the ground where I live. I've never lived at a place where snow has consistently fallen. Once I lived on a mountain range and it fell twice in the winter I spent there. But in Tasmania - weirdly - there's been reported snow falls this week on the island due to a cold snap from Antarctica. Next thing you know it will be back to warm late spring weather here. You should see my blooming snapdragons, they are lovely, yellow with red stripey spots.

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ruraldiva wrote on Nov 23, '08

What an achievement. More or less on a whim.....draw the map of Scotland. Wonderful background and equally wonderful maps.

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artimisia wrote on Nov 23, '08

fantastic, very readable [like the size of print good for us visually challenged]....isnt it amazing how importanrt work valuable to every one is held on to by the few for so long

ps the photo below is of my local "kirk" [ is my scottish improvint lol]