COMPILATION AND THE NAPOLEONIC MAPPING OF EGYPT: AN HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION (COLONIALISM, IDEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHIC, MILITARY, CARTOGRAPHY, FRANCE)

This work argues and demonstrates that compilation is worthy of the attention of historians of cartography as it encourages a holistic and critical study of mapmaking and consideration of the role of cartography in society. In early topographic and military mapping, compilation was the means whereby the basic structure of the map was established, and the source data reconciled and presented. Strongly shaped by the nature of the field information available, it in turn influenced the production processes employed in the production of the map. In the case of the topographic and geographic maps of Egypt produced during the Napoleonic invasion of that country (1798-1801) compilation included most critical design decisions.;This dissertation focuses on the compilation processes behind the Napoleonic Carte topographique de l'Egypte. These are studied within both the immediate cartographic context of the field survey and production processes and the general historical context of the expedition and its aims. All aspects of mapmaking dealt with by the compiler as part of the compilation process are discussed. These comprise: preliminary scale decisions; field and office compilation in Egypt; the production of provisional compilations; information and source gathering; final scale and coverage decisions; in some cases the neat drafting and graphic rendering of the surveys; consideration of the form of the final product; compilation and extension of the geodetic frame; drafting operations; filling in of blank areas and the checking of field data with previous maps and accounts; determination of the manner in which entirely unknown regions should be depicted; compilation of placenames; the design of the conventional signs; overseeing the engraving process; revision and correction of the proofs; and the composition of a cartographic memoir explaining and justifying the decisions taken. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).;Cartography was central to the invasion and field surveys were carried out to serve the immediate needs of the military, administrators and scholars. The longer term French interest in Egypt as a colony translated into cartography as a topographic survey. These maps were used by Europeans and Egyptians in the planning and reform of major water and transportation routes for the next 100 years.