Cosmography and chorography

Use in the book

“I never travelled but in Map or Card” makes physical stillness compatible with intellectual movement. Card means chart or map. Burton’s thoughts “have freely expatiated” through his delight in cosmography, between a confession of disorderly reading and an account of the sufficient provision that sustains his collegiate life. The adjacent horoscope belongs to this self-portrait, but it does not turn cosmography into a synonym for casting horoscopes. Study offers a way to range beyond the scholar’s room.

Place-description also enters Burton’s defence of his subject. Borrowing from his elder brother’s preface, he invokes the clergymen Braun and Henning as precedents for learned work beyond a narrowly theological field. Pictures, maps, perspective views and “corographical delights” belong to Braun’s theatre of cities; genealogical study belongs to Henning’s different theatre. A theatre here can be a comprehensive survey, not a stage performance. Burton then turns to Lessius: a disease of the soul concerns a divine as well as a physician. The distinction between the two clergymen’s projects matters to the analogy.

The practitioner’s title does not guarantee the claims attributed to him. The Spanish “Chorographer” Echovius allegedly finds no poverty in Borcino and explains the city’s prosperity by its greater religious devotion. Burton adopts this as a lead into his own accusation against sacrilege; the causal explanation is attributed, not independently demonstrated. Two “Corographer” passages name Camden in their margins. One concerns old property conveyances, to which Burton adds that he has himself seen short deeds; the other concerns the differing survival of old families in north and south, attributed to extravagance. Regional writing thus includes antiquities, institutions, families and manners. The precise Camden passages and the first passage’s “golden crosses” remain unresolved in the supplied apparatus.

A cosmographical book can likewise contain material beyond the drawing of maps. Münster’s “Cosmog.” is cited for the immense casualty figures of the Trojan War, with Dictys named as his source. “In Cosmogr.” accompanies reports of subterranean beings about metal mines. These are transmitted literary and natural-historical reports, not observations made by Burton or facts authenticated merely by a book title. The selected citations establish the title sense and two printed abbreviations without turning the article into a list of every Münster reference.

Burton’s imagined journey in the digression on air is an inquiry into such authorities. Like a hawk, he will range high and wide, then return to his former subject. He proposes to test polar accounts and passages and to compare geographical names. The “new Cards” that make California an island transmit a cartographic error. The questions about China and Cathay run together places that the edition distinguishes; Terra Australis Incognita is a conjectured southern land, approached through both scepticism and expectations of discovery. These alternatives and errors belong to the projected investigation, not to an accomplished world survey.

This context governs “reforme Cosmographicall Chartes, and rectifie longitudes, if it were possible”. Censure means critically examine or judge; Burton’s accusation of “lyes” is stronger than that verb alone. He would revise maps and seek a better method for determining east–west position. “I would” and “if it were possible” qualify the programme. He expressly rejects determining longitude “by the Compass” on the proposal he associates with Ridley, invoking Cabeus against it. Nothing here records a solved navigational problem.

At a smaller descriptive scale, Brahe’s Chorography of Hven and Uraniborg supplies an example of bird-catching, with nets described as an attractive feature and a recreation. The great astronomer is being used as a describer of a particular island and estate, not as the source of an astronomical observation. The neighbouring examples concern quail-catching and fishing.

The map-reading passage returns to travel without leaving the study. “Chorographical, Topographical delineations” let the reader behold provinces, towns and cities “as it were”; representation mediates the experience. A scale and compasse allow measurement of extent and distance and examination of situation. These are measuring compasses, not the magnetic instrument discussed in the longitude passage. The continuation moves through maps, engraved silver tables, city books, geographical descriptions and travel accounts, joining pleasure to the acquisition of knowledge.

Topography cannot, however, be assigned one fixed spatial size. The “Topography of Lapland” describes a territory. Burton invokes it in a disagreement about jealousy among northern peoples, expressing surprise that Góis and Herberstein oppose what he presents as the general current of geographical writers. The preceding national comparisons are rhetorical stereotypes, not quantified results. The title tells us the kind of source being used; it does not settle the dispute.

Urban topography makes the word’s local application clearer. Boissard’s marginal “Topogr. Rom. Part. 1.” accompanies the combined pleasure of seeing images of antiquities and reading their descriptions. Gillius’s “Topogr. Constant.” supplies an alleged count of Constantinople’s public baths. Later, the preface abbreviated “Topogr. Constantinop.” supports a different kind of borrowing: Burton quotes the prospect of the city’s enduring existence only to reject it with “but ’tis not so”. A topographical authority can provide an example or a position to contradict. The continuation turns from ruined cities to consolation for bereavement and the hope of resurrection and reunion. The supplied edition does not claim to have collated these precise editions, quotations or the bath total.

The described domain can also change. Crooke’s Microcosmographia, in thirteen books, is recommended among anatomical readings to which Burton’s own short account should lead. It is not an atlas, nor is it identical with the neighbouring “translation of Columbus”. Lunar Geography, associated with Kepler, directs description towards the moon. Burton’s “betwixt iest and earnest”, his separation of inhabited planets from doubtful stars, and Kepler’s reported refusal of Bruno’s infinite worlds prevent the phrase from proving either a completed lunar survey or agreement on one cosmological system.

The extension in “all that subterranean Geography” is openly polemical. Purgatory and the limbos are treated as an elaborate allocation of underground regions within Burton’s Protestant attack on papal authority. The disparaging “that” and the surrounding accusations are part of the expression’s force. This is neither a neutral account of geographical learning nor an independent exposition of Catholic teaching. Description has become a vehicle of ridicule.

Finally, ordinary Geography appears in a mocked defence of ignorance. Wealthy men assign astronomy to sailors, arithmetic to merchants’ agents, geography to Landleapers, or wanderers, and other subjects to other occupations. The words “thus they reason” identify the argument as theirs. Burton’s point is that they allow working people to be better educated than themselves, not that geography ought to be reserved for vagrants. This social argument complements the pleasure of cosmographical study in his own self-portrait.

Related entries

Microcosm: the human little world; Crooke’s title is a limited bibliographical overlap, not a second full article on that metaphor.

Astrological aspects: the horoscope beside the opening cosmographical self-portrait.

Study and reading: the uses and dangers of learned activity.

Travel: journeys as distinct from movement through books and maps.

Censure: critical examination of travellers’ reports in the same projected inquiry.

Rectification: correcting longitudes, if possible, while rejecting the compass method.

Lodestone and adamant: the queried polar rock and competing compass explanations.

Authority: what a named writer or cited book does and does not establish.

Antipodes: the inhabited opposite side of the earth and arguments about geographical knowledge.

Terra Australis: the conjectured southern land within the projected inquiry.

Parallax and refraction: the different observational problem of celestial position.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 2–4reading, “Map or Card,” cosmography and collegiate life.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 18–20Braun’s city survey, Henning’s genealogy and Burton’s defence of his own subject.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 18–20; note 531Münster’s “Cosmog.” and the transmitted Trojan casualty figures.
4. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 8–10Echovius as chorographer and the attributed religious cause of prosperity.
5. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 35–37Camden as “Corographer”, property instruments and Burton’s claim to have seen short deeds.
6. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 19–21regional family histories and an explanation by extravagance.
7. Section 1. Member 2. Subsection 1. A Digression on Anatomy · paragraphs 22–25anatomy as self-knowledge and Crooke’s Microcosmographia.
8. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 37–39; note 2109“In Cosmogr.” as a marginal citation for reported underground beings.
9. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 34–36“Landleapers Geography” in the idle gentlemen’s argument, which Burton rebukes.
10. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraph 39Gillius’s “Topogr. Constant.” and the attributed count of baths.
11. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 12–23the projected journey, uncertain routes, erroneous maps and conjectural southern land.
12. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 7–9hypothetical correction of maps and longitudes, with magnetic determination rejected.
13. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 23–25Lunar Geography and the qualifications in Burton’s report of Kepler.
14. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 23–25Brahe’s chorography among the examples of recreation.
15. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 36–38; note 5925Roman topography, images, antiquities and descriptions.
16. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 1–5regional and local depictions, map measurement, city books and travel accounts.
17. Member 5 Against Sorrow Over the Death of Friends or Other Causes, Groundless Fear, and So On · paragraphs 52–54; notes 7078–83a topographical author’s claim for Constantinople’s permanence, explicitly contradicted, followed by consolation for bereavement and the hope of resurrection and reunion.
18. Causes of Jealousy. Who Are Most Susceptible. Idleness, Melancholy, Impotence, Prolonged Absence, Beauty, Sexual Licence, Being Unfaithful Themselves. Temptations Arising From Time, Place and People; Mistreatment as a Cause · paragraphs 5–7Topography of Lapland in a disagreement about national character and jealousy.
19. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 35–37“subterranean Geography” in the hostile confessional catalogue.

In this edition

The modern column retains “cosmography” in Burton’s self-description. “corographical delights” becomes “the delights of describing places”; “Chorographer” becomes “writer on places”. The two “Corographer” passages become, respectively, “writer on our country” and “writers on regional geography,” within their complete grammatical phrases. These are contextual explanations of a descriptive occupation, not claims that Burton’s three sources wrote identical kinds of books.

“Cosmographicall Chartes” becomes “maps of the world”. Brahe’s “Chorography” becomes “geographical description”, while the paired “Chorographical, Topographical delineations” becomes “Regional and local depictions”. “Topography of Lapland” becomes “description of Lapland”. The adjacent “Scale and compasse” becomes “a scale and compasses”. The last equivalent reflects an instrument of measurement; it must not be transferred to the magnetic “Compass”.

The modern column keeps Microcosmographia and Lunar Geography as titles and preserves the figurative “subterranean geography”. The expansions of “Cosmog.”, “In Cosmogr.”, “Topogr. Rom. Part. 1.” and “Præfat. Topogr. Constantinop.” are in the supplied notes, not invented body quotations. An original marginal citation and its editorial translation or identification must therefore be kept separate even when they share one note. The article checks the supplied original/modern pair and its apparatus; it does not claim independent collation of the books Burton cites.

cosmography

Description of the world in its celestial setting; geographical and astronomical learning.

The broader definition is explicitly supplied-editor evidence the accompanying note, not a Burton-authored definition.

Original text: “Cosmography”. In the modern column: “cosmography”. The study Burton enjoys through maps. Burton’s first-person learned persona reports delight and imaginative travel; the following horoscope is adjacent, not a definition.

map; card

A map or chart through which the reader imagines travel.

The original singular pair and plural variant have the same map sense. The second attestation is selected because the chart’s information is erroneous.

Original text: “Map or Card”. In the modern column: “maps and charts”. Two names for maps, not playing cards. The qualification never...but makes reading/map travel the stated exception to physical travel.

Original text: “new Cards”. In the modern column: “new charts”. Recent charts reporting geographical information. Burton attributes California’s insularity to charts; the accompanying note identifies the cartographic error.

chorographical

Concerned with descriptions of particular places or regions.

The second paired phrase is also registered as L11; this adjective record distinguishes its component from topographical.

Original text: “corographical delights”. In the modern column: “the delights of describing places”. Pleasure in place-description. Burton borrows from William Burton; the first of the two clergymen, Braun, has pictures/maps/place-description; Henning has genealogy.

Original text: “Chorographical, Topographical delineations”. In the modern column: “Regional and local depictions”. Regional descriptions represented in images. Two adjectives modify delineations; the modern phrase maps the paired whole rather than assigning local to chorographical.

chorographer

A writer describing a country, region or particular place.

Spelling and contextual translations are consolidated; offices, families and manners belong to the described region as well as terrain.

Original text: “Chorographer”. In the modern column: “writer on places”. Echovius’s kind of descriptive writing. Echovius allegedly reports universal prosperity and assigns a religious cause; Burton uses it against sacrilege. No verified economic or causal conclusion.

Original text: “Corographer”. In the modern column: “writer on our country”. Camden as antiquarian and regional writer. Camden is named only in the accompanying note; the claim to have seen short deeds is Burton’s own, not Camden’s. Golden crosses remain unresolved.

Original text: “Corographer”. In the modern column: “writers on regional geography”. Camden as a writer on regional families. One of our writers is the complete modern construction, hence plural writers does not mean Burton cites several people here. The explanation by luxury is reported.

Cosmography (cited work)

A cited cosmographical work, here Münster’s, rather than the discipline alone.

Original marginal wording and the supplied note’s modern translation remain distinct, even when presented together in one source note. This record is not a complete Münster-citation concordance.

Original margin: “Munster. Cosmog. l. 5. c. 3. E Dict. Cretens.” Supplied note translation or expansion: “Cosmography”. Full supplied note translation: “Münster, Cosmography, book 5, chapter 3, from Dictys of Crete.” Münster as a conduit for a literary Trojan casualty account. Marginal bibliographic attribution; earlier source Dictys is explicit. An accompanying note denies independent verification of death tolls.

Original margin: “In Cosmogr.” Supplied note translation or expansion: “In the Cosmography.” Münster’s work cited for underground spirits near mines. Burton’s body says saith Munster; miners’ good-luck belief and different degrees of harm are reported, not independently confirmed.

cosmographical chart

A map representing the world.

The modernization is checked at phrase level. The celestial scope of cosmography does not make these charts a horoscope.

Original text: “Cosmographicall Chartes”. In the modern column: “maps of the world”. World maps Burton proposes to revise. I would governs censure/correct/reforme/rectifie; if it were possible qualifies the programme, not a completed reform.

longitude

East–west geographical position.

The source frames a desired improvement to geographical knowledge, while rejecting a particular magnetic method.

Original text: “rectifie longitudes”. In the modern column: “correct longitudes”. Improve the determination of east–west position. Qualified by if it were possible; not evidence of Burton solving longitude. An accompanying note supplies the definition.

compass (magnetic)

A magnetic direction-finding instrument.

This sense is distinct from L10’s measuring instrument.

Original text: “not by the Compass”. In the modern column: “not do it by the compass”. The rejected proposed means of determining longitude. Negation is essential: Burton invokes Cabeus against the method attributed to Ridley and seeks a better means.

compass (measuring)

Compasses used with a scale to measure a map.

Instrumental distinction is supported by the local measuring verbs and editor the accompanying note.

Original text: “Scale and compasse”. In the modern column: “a scale and compasses”. Tools for measuring extent and distance on a representation. Subject is the reader who beholds places as it were without leaving the study; this is map measurement, not a magnetic method for longitude.

chorographical, topographical delineations

Regional and local representations, such as maps or depictions of places.

The whole phrase is retained alongside the adjective record so users can retrieve its checked translation without losing component distinctions.

Original text: “Chorographical, Topographical delineations”. In the modern column: “Regional and local depictions”. Representations that let a reader inspect distant places. As it were marks mediated presence; the adjectives are paired and cannot be used to prove that every topography covers only a tiny site.

chorography

A description of a particular region, island or place.

An accompanying note identifies Hven/Uraniborg and explicitly says the particular bird-netting passage remains uncollated.

Original text: “Tycho Brahe that great Astronomer, in the Chorography of his Isle of Huena, & castle of Uraniburge, puts down his nets, and manner of catching small birds as an ornament, and a recreation, wherein he himself was sometimes imployed.” In the modern column: “geographical description”. Brahe’s description of Hven and Uraniborg. The bird nets are an ornament and recreation attributed to Brahe; Burton cites it in a recreation catalogue, not as astronomical observation.

topography (cited descriptions)

A description of a place or territory, here Lapland, Rome or Constantinople.

Title use covers territories as well as cities; earlier marginal Roman evidence is retained and two Constantinople uses add a citation-versus-rejection distinction.

Original text: “Topogr. Constant.” In the modern column: “Topography of Constantinople”. Gillius’s city-description cited for baths. Burton reports 155 baths and ventures belike a purpose for bathing. The count and pairing with nymphaea remain uncollated.

Original margin: “Topogr. Rom. Part. 1.” Supplied note translation or expansion: “Topography of Rome, part 1.” Roman antiquarian description supporting looking and reading together. Boissard is named in the body; exact Latin quotation and compressed antiquarian bibliography are not collated.

Original margin: “Præfat. Topogr. Constantinop.” Supplied note translation or expansion: “preface to the Topography of Constantinople”. Full supplied note expansion with editorial identification: “Pierre Gilles, preface to the Topography of Constantinople.” Editorial identification of the author, not contained in the abbreviation Præfat. Topogr. Constantinop.: “Pierre Gilles”. Preface to a city-description cited for an assertion of permanence. The immortality claim is Gillius’s quoted position; Burton’s but ’tis not so rejects it. The actual continuation uses ruined cities for consolation in bereavement, then joins Christian resurrection to a hope of reunion attributed to Cicero; the accompanying note does not treat that attribution as proof of Cicero’s Christian belief.

Original text: “Topography of Lapland”. In the modern column: “description of Lapland”. A territorial description attributed to Góis. Burton is surprised and disagrees with a claim about northern jealousy; national comparisons are his rhetoric, not established demographic facts.

Lunar Geography

Geographical description directed towards the moon, associated here with Kepler.

The supplied source does not independently resolve the exact bibliographical identity of this phrase; no one-to-one identification with the adjacent Dream is imposed.

Original text: “Lunar Geography”. In the modern column: “Lunar Geography”. A title or work-description within Burton’s list of Kepler’s writings. Burton says half in jest and half in earnest; Kepler is reported as rejecting Bruno’s infinity, granting inhabited planets, doubting stars. No completed lunar survey is established.

subterranean geography

A derisive mapping of contested theological abodes below the earth.

The actual surrounding contempt and agency are retained; this is not the literal mining-spirit citation in L05.

Original text: “all that subterranean Geography”. In the modern column: “all that subterranean geography”. Purgatory and limbos figured as underground regions. Burton’s Protestant narrator accuses popes of introducing traditions for authority and wealth. The list is hostile, not neutral Catholic doctrine.

geography

Knowledge or description of the earth and its places.

The whole elliptical allocation is aligned; wanderers is not part of geography’s lexical meaning.

Original text: “Landleapers Geography”. In the modern column: “wanderers geography”. Geography assigned to wanderers in a mocked occupational division of learning. Thus they reason attributes the dismissal to idle gentlemen; Burton rebukes their refusal to study.

landleaper

A wanderer or vagrant.

An accompanying note supplies the gloss. Keep the speaker boundary rather than treating the occupational allocation as Burton’s recommendation.

Original text: “Landleapers”. In the modern column: “wanderers”. The alleged occupational users of geography. These are the people to whom idle gentlemen would leave the subject; the contemptuous social hierarchy belongs to that reported reasoning.

theatre (survey)

A comprehensive survey, here one presenting cities.

The local sense and Braun identification are supplied by editor the accompanying note. This supporting record does not absorb all theatrical uses in Burton.

Original text: “theatre of cities”. In the modern column: “Theatre of Cities”. Braun’s illustrated urban survey. The first writer Braun supplies the city example; the other writer Henning supplies genealogies, not a second city atlas.

Earlier explanation: censure

Earlier explanation: Censure; critical scrutiny

For censure, see Censure.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: (source page 244), censure is rendered scrutinize: critically examine or judge, not merely prohibit or suppress. Burton would examine received accounts; his following lyes adds hostile judgment beyond the verb’s bare meaning. An accompanying note explains the verb. The conditional inquiry and attempted correction of navigation remain part of the Cosmography discussion, while this exact lexical occurrence is already explained in Censure.

Earlier explanation: Microcosmographia

Earlier explanation: microcosmographia

For Microcosmographia, see Microcosm.

Context passages: the passage, the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: (source page 14), Microcosmographia remains Microcosmographia in the modern column: a thirteen-book anatomical work recommended to encourage study. The neighbouring translation of Columbus names a different work, not this title. Crooke is named by the original margin and identified further by editor the accompanying note. The normalized access forms microcosmography and Crooke’s Microcosmographia are explanatory routes, not additional printed forms. Microcosm already explains this exact anatomical title occurrence; its descriptive relation to cosmography remains discussed here.

Access scope (microcosmography): Editorial normalized access form, not an additional original attestation.

Access scope (Crooke’s Microcosmographia): Editorial normalized access form, not an additional original attestation.

Earlier explanation: Terra Australis Incognita

Earlier explanation: Terra Australis Incognita

For Terra Australis Incognita, see Utopia.

Context passages: the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: (source pages 241–242), Terra Australis Incognita is rendered Unknown Southern Land. It is a conjectured southern land in Burton’s projected inquiry, not a securely surveyed continent. Burton moves from doubt and comparisons with imaginary lands to confident expectation; the accompanying note preserves that movement and the uncertainty about the cited names. Magellanica is another printed name in the passage. Utopia already explains this exact geographical-name occurrence; its relevance to the cartographic argument remains discussed here.