Lapponia, Bure's first map , previously in
Trolleholm Castle. Anders Bure has been called the "father of Swedish cartography". In 1603, Bure received a
commission from the future King Charles IX of Sweden (at the time Duke Charles) to make a map of the Nordic countries, with the specification that it should show all provinces and cities of Sweden. Charles had a personal interest in mapmaking, and his successor
Gustavus Adolphus, who Bure would also work for, personally used maps frequently, both during his military campaigns and in peacetime. However, the immediate reason for commissioning the map was ongoing border disputes with Denmark and Russia. There were also broader political, military and administrative reasons for the Swedish state to take an interest in mapmaking, and within a few generations the state would finance and orchestrate the complete mapping of the country. Bure produced a first map in 1611, covering the northern part of Sweden, usually referred to as
Lapponia. The limited range of this map has been connected with the geopolitical ambitions of Charles IX, who entertained plans for a Swedish expedition towards the
Arctic Ocean. The map was based on substantial research, both archival research and, apparently, field studies, and was considerably more accurate than earlier depictions of the region. For example, the river systems and lakes of northern Sweden are rendered in a basically correct way. While
nautical charts and relatively accurate maps existed for many areas around Sweden, no reliable map had hitherto been made of the country; the
Carta marina made by
Olaus Magnus in 1539 was geographically inaccurate (though
ethnographically important). Swedish archivist and historian therefore called it the "first map of Sweden worth its name". Historian notes in the
Dictionary of Swedish National Biography (Svenskt biografiskt lexikon) that "through its level of detail and correctness" the map constituted "extraordinary progress for its time, and was unprecedented in the Nordic countries". The map has furthermore been an important source for discussions about the early modern history of
Sámi peoples. It depicts several Sámi settlements and
siidas; the exact interpretation of the information on Bure's map is a subject of debate.
Map of Scandinavia . A total of seven copies of the original print run are known to have survived. The commentary that accompanied the map is anonymous, but it seems plausible that it was written by Bure, perhaps assisted by his cousin Johannes Bureus. It is a nationalistic,
Gothicist pamphlet, containing a description of Sweden but also boastful claims about a heroic past of Sweden. For example, it contains a comment on the lack of older written sources from Sweden, which the author attributes to the decline of the
runic alphabet, implicating that if Swedish culture and history were only more well-known, they would be comparable to those of
Ancient Greece or
Rome.
Head of the Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authority Although Bure's work as a map-maker highlighted the importance of maps, the large scale of his maps limited their use in detailed administrative tasks. King Gustavus Adolphus however followed up on Bure's successes by creating a national body responsible for producing maps that could be of use both militarily and administratively, against a wider backdrop of "expansion abroad and consolidation at home", as put by the historian of geography Elizabeth Baigent. Bure was given the task of training new land
surveyors, and to carry out a systematic mapping of Sweden. He was given the title
Generalmatematikus ("general mathematician"), a unique title in Swedish administration, only bestowed once through history. Thereby he became the first
de facto head of
Lantmäteriet, the Swedish Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authority. He set about training six surveyors, among them some who had collaborated with Bure in his earlier projects, and several of them had studied
astronomy, mathematics or geometry at Uppsala University. The surveying task itself was comprehensive: all villages were to be mapped, with their fields, meadows, woodlands and bogs and other unusable land marked in separate colours. Rivers, lakes and harbours were also to be mapped. Furthermore, the surveyors were not only to produce maps, but also propose improvements in land use. In fact, the King viewed the project as a wider modernisation programme, intended to propel Sweden forward through both investigation and action. The exact reason for this large undertaking has been a matter of debate. Since the late
Middle Ages, an increasingly systematic effort had been underway in Sweden to register
land holdings, as land was subject of direct taxation. It has been argued that the systematic mapping of the country would give the state a tool for more efficient and transparent levy of taxes. The maps were also used, in some cases, in this way. Nonetheless, it has also been argued that the main reason for the mapping project was not fiscal, but military or more broadly economical, or as part of a wider modernisation project. Bure himself left the authority after some time, but the instructions he wrote for the agency would be applied for the next 200 years. The mapping efforts begun under Bure's tutelage in 1628 also led to a systematic survey of the entire country. By 1700, Sweden had the most systematic series of
cadastral maps in the world. His successor as head of the authority was , and under his leadership a more detailed map was produced in 1688. During the 17th century several territories outside modern-day Sweden were part of the
Swedish Empire. The surveying and mapping therefore also extended to Finland, where surveying began in 1633 under the same premises, and to the Swedish provinces in the present-day
Baltic states, as well as to
Pomerania and Mecklenburg in present-day Germany, where surveying increased during the 1680s. Conversely,
Gotland and
Scania, which became Swedish later, and much of inland
Lapland remained unmapped for a longer time. ==References==