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LIGHT UNIVERSITY LYON II
DOCTORAL SCHOOL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Doctorate of History VASQUEZ Jean-Michel
A MISSIONARY CARTOGRAPHY.Appropriation,on The name of Christ and science (1870s – 1930s).
Thesis directed by Mr. Claude Prudhomme. Supported on 21 December 2007
Acknowledgement
"Among the many archivists and documentalists whom this research invited me to meet, I would like to thank particularly the staff of the Pontifical Mission Societies of Lyon, the archivist Ms. Odile
Lolom, the documentaryist Laurence Broglie and the volunteers. Professionalism
And their kindness in making my research easier.
During my stay at the house of the Spirits of Chevilly-la-rueFather Vieira, archivist of the congregation, has always shown an interest in the subject and encouraged my work by placing at my disposal essential documents. Chevilly who always gives a warm and kind welcome to the researcher. Thanks to the many missionaries who have kindly testified of their experience: Fathers Bernard (missionary in Cameroon), Bertrand (Haiti), Ernout (Congo-Brazzaville), Sillard
(Gabon), Wauters (Congo)
"Storers and printers
The use of experts, such as the engravers and printers, raises the question of the changes made to the original document: is the map altered before publication? The answer is probably negative. In all cases, the maps do not undergo the same treatment as the drawings. As J.L. Burlats showed, original drawings could be retouched at the headquarters of the Catholic Missions in Lyon, for the sake of dramatization150This is apparently not the case for maps for which only figurative improvements are allowed. At least this is what, after consulting the various archives, the comparison between the original maps still held by the congregations and their printed version showed.151In addition, the use of designated engravers, sometimes renowned, is a guarantee for some of the serious ones. For the usual maps, the main difficulty remains the superimposition of the toponyms: it is to make the document sufficiently clear, but without masking the many informations that it is often the only one to propose on this scale. For the colour-based premium cards, the representation of the relief and the polychrome use are the most delicate points. But the magazine prefers to address in this case to the specialist.
The absence of archives concerning the publications of the occult journal two aspects of our maps: their exact cost of engraving and printing and the role that some engravers could play in valorizing these documents. Therefore, we must first keep to the indications given by the maps themselves at the foot of which are some names. In general, the most interesting maps are engraved, the others simply redesigned, but the same specialist often carries out both activities. The term engraver probably makes more reference to technical know-how; The drawing of a draftsman, coupled with a geographer, involves reassuring scientific knowledge. Wuhrer The magazine is the most frequently cited engraver in the early years of the journal. It also refers to a certain Roux. But above all, as early as 1879, the magazine takes care to use the same person, the designer-geographer Rémi Hausermann. Charged in 1879 to engrave the map of Equatorial Africa transmitted by the RP Charming, Hausermann He was the author of the RP Carrie's map on the Loango to the Ubangui in 1888, and he was also the representative of the RP Le Roy's unusual journey to the Kilimanjaro and the Ubangui. Zanguebar In 1892, or around Madagascar after the RP Roblet in 1895.
But its role is essential in the realization of the large premium cards offered to subscribers. Hausermann represented missions on all continents, with a clear, neat and especially colour image. Its large format is intended to be shown. Hausermann He is not familiar with competition because little work is being done on the representation of missions and ecclesiastical hierarchy. The only orders are from the publications of the Faith Propagation Work, which exercise a real monopoly. Thus, his maps because they deal with a relatively static subject, do not suffer editorial pressure and do not fear being overtaken by the latest discoveries. Hausermann The work is closely associated with the original project of the magazine, which was to cover all the missions of the world. Its name appears in the general corpus 42 times, including thirty for the premium cards; on Africa, it signs 22 documents, including ten for the great maps.152. Hausermann His research on the pedagogical virtues of the map in geography is easily found in the documents he intended for Catholic Missions: simple aspects, rich information and consultation practices.153. It gives the maps of the magazine an inimitable style that it will reproduce on the whole corpus of the In the years 1880 to 1915, he took up the same methods of representation, of colours and of calligraphy, and gave a unity to the corpus of the prize cards.154.
The representational techniques are improved every day in the second half of the year. XIXthThe only Bulletin of the Society of Geography already devotes in the 1840s a hundred pages on the progress of science, among which the processes of mapping. The engraving consists of a plate of variable support on which is engraved in the burin the drawing of the map. This model then receives ink and then paper and serves for many prints. The search for new supports inspires the inventors. The old xylography is replaced by the engraving on copper that offers the greatest precision. It is the technique of strong water or bathed acid: the "bite" copper that was incised before being cleaned and coloured. The artist who uses a pencil is rather a painter-graver. indetronable Until about 1850. It was then called into question by new processes, such as lithography, which allowed the first colour maps and at a lesser cost since 1852.155Other promising processes attract attention:
"A painter in Montpellier has written a memoir on diaphanous engraving at the Academy of Sciences. By this process, any cartoonist could engrave as he draws, direct the point with the same ease as his pencil. It is to draw the figures with the sharp tip of a hard body on a prepared ice, as they would be drawn with the pencil on a sheet of paper, and when the work is finished, he draws as many proofs as he wishes"156.
L-heliogravure also uses a copper plate which, covered with a Judea bitumen varnish and exposed to the sun, gives a precise and faithful image to the original. photozincography The same procedure is followed, but with gelatin and bichronate The problem of colour is more economical than technical. Since the first maps appeared at the map exhibition of 1867 produced by Belgium and Holland, the use of color is simpler and faster. But it still represents a certain cost and only some publishers with modern means can benefit from it.157. The Catholic Missions reserve the colour at their annual premium card. In 1893, the chromozincography offers several prints of the same object on zincs in different colours: one blue for the sea and rivers, one bistre for the relief, another black for the localities.158The only defect is the paper that receives the three decals because some leaves are sometimes elongated by moisture. The spotting is not exactly the same.
The Commission has already taken a number of steps to improve the quality of the information and the quality of the information. XIXth The work is designed to produce low-cost images, which is suitable for the work's publications. XXth, techniques improve and produce even faster cards at a lower cost159(cf : About Moyamba, V.A. of Loango, TogoThe other interest lies in the origin of the maps, because they are of missionary origin and do not involve the scientific authority of a geographer, they are quickly treated by the publication which immediately causes the most interesting, without the need to submit the tests to the author. This care taken to make the final realization conform to the original is only found for important publications, such as the atlases. The first is the one of the models: they are sent back to the author who corrects them before returning them to the publisher, i.e. a long and precise correspondence, often taunting, which points in detail to errors made on both sides.160.
Notes
150. BURLASTS, Op. cit . See PRUDEMAN Claude, "the representation of the other in the iconography of the Catholic missions ", pp. 36-39, in CREDIC, Iconography, catechism and missions, Colloquium of 5-8 September 1984, Lyon, 1984, 125 pp.
151. The example of the PR map Augouard, relating to the Congo"Mc-1882-HT, is characteristic of the treatment applied to the original, found in the archives Spiritans à Chevilly-la-rue The only difference is the representation of the relief: where the RP is located, the number of people who are in the area of the village is not very high. Augouard The engraver had identified hills with a quick gesture that vaguely symbolized a region, and he took care to draw a true mountain system with a slope and ridge line that crossed the entire map and framed the Congo. Aesthetically, the relief is much better represented, which gives the map a serious character. But a closer look will find that the same relief is completely devoid of altitudes, that is, in accordance with its original which locates it in a very fanciful way. Moreover, a line of ridges is drawn precisely delimiting two slopes. The original of theAugouard He was vaguely only in the relief he enjoyed from afar and did not know how wide he was, for lack of having crossed it. This practice cannot be regarded as a hijacking of the meaning of the map; Rather, it aims to make it more serious and effective. It is precisely at this level that the experience of the engraver Remi Hausermann. The reader does not exaggerate the finally limited topographical knowledge of the document.
152. A letter dated 5 February 1889 from Abbé Morel, Lyon's editor of the publications, probably about the mission map in Indochina, asks a member of the Paris office "to go and take the mission map to M. Hausermann, geographer at 71 rue du recherche midi. It is a wonder. As my 1900 francs would be well used for another similar work." Another letter from Morel, dated 21 March 1894, asks that the Parisian council "make the bill of 3041 francs to Hausermann » OPM Archives, Paris Fund, A4 Correspondence about the Bulletin of Catholic Missions.
153. Rem Hausermann was the author of several atlases of geography for primary and higher secondary education during the years 1890-1894.
154. Another designer-cartographer, the Lyons Leroy, intervened in the years 1934 to 1939. Besides the signature, his technique is recognizable by two facts: all his documents are signed by a code and a card recalls the country where the mission is extracted.
155. Map of Greece from the Navy Depot, 1852.
156. "Cutting process" in Geography Society Bulletin, 4th series, 1853, volume V, p.4
157. Hachette is precisely the most modern means of publishing for geography. L'éditeur creates a Cartographic Office that allows Vivien de Saint Martin and Franz Schrader "to compete with German cartographers." The training of the French School of Geography, Paris, ed. of the CTHS, p. 144.
158. The chromolithography uses the same process on a stone support.
159. OPM Archives. Some originals of the inter-wars prove that reproduction has become simple and rapid; they correspond to the following published versions: "West Africa", MC-1922-118; " About Moyamba », MC-1922-322 ; « Ethiopia », MC-1935-491 ; « V.A. of LoangoMC-1939-281; "Country Schiens », MC-1940-168 ; « Togo" MC-1943-7.
160. One Atlas of China Asia B China.2 of the 1934 with the 19 provinces' tests is available at the MPC.