An international documentary enquiry, Cartography of Absence, is currently investigating the material history, survival and historiography of engraved cartographic matrices from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Following a year of research involving nearly seven hundred museums, libraries, archives, universities, scientific laboratories, learned societies and private collections worldwide, the project is now inviting the technical experience of practising engravers, printmakers and print specialists.

To my knowledge, practising engravers have rarely been invited to contribute directly to the historiography of engraved cartographic matrices. Their technical experience may nevertheless provide a unique documentary perspective on the manufacture, use and material behaviour of these remarkable objects.

The purpose is not to authenticate historical matrices, but to explore how contemporary engraving practice may help illuminate technical questions that historical documentation often leaves unanswered.

Professional experience will be considered as a complementary documentary source, critically compared with archival, material and institutional evidence within a broader historical enquiry.

Practitioners wishing to contribute observations arising from their professional experience are warmly invited to contact:

Michel Chevalier
Independent Researcher
Project Cartography of Absence
michel.r.chevalier@hotmail.fr