Matthew H. Edney

“The actual behavior, what people do, is mapping. The idealized behavior, what people think they do, is cartography.”
― Matthew H. Edney, Cartography: The Ideal and Its History

“While ostensibly poking fun at the period’s nationalistic rivalries, the passage questions the ideal of cartography by mocking the perfect map: “That’s another thing we’ve learned from your Nation,” said Mein Herr, “map-making. But we’ve carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?” “About six inches to the mile.” “Only six inches!” exclaimed Mein Herr. “We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!” “Have you used it much?” I enquired. “It has never been spread out, yet,” said Mein Herr: “the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.” (Carroll 1893, 169, original emphasis) Carroll’s”
― Matthew H. Edney, Cartography: The Ideal and Its History