Editorial

Reaching a big milestone in 2023, we completed the digitisation of more than 35,000 maps from the Perthes Collection in Gotha. It comprises cartographic pieces that were collected as well as produced by Justus Perthes, one of the world’s leading geographic publishing houses in the 19^th century. Some of the most interesting maps and corresponding research have already been introduced on this blog; amongst others, we learned about disease maps, European map production and colonial imaginaries. This project has been coordinated by Dr. Claudia Berger since 2021 and we are grateful for her dedication and hard work.

While all digitised maps are now accessible through Digitale Historische Bibliothek Erfurt/Gotha and GOTHA.digital, there is still much research regarding “Mapping Africa and Asia” to be done. Therefore, we are pleased to announce that this blog now continues to provide insights into the ongoing work of scholars visiting Gotha. As fellows of the Centre for Transcultural Studies we, Albert Feierabend and Florian Balbiani, have assumed responsibility for this site. We cordially invite all those working with material from the Perthes Collection and maps in general to follow this blog for updates and consider contributing.

In the upcoming weeks you can look forward to two insightful articles. Samuel Kidane Haile is going to introduce the northern Ethiopian border-marking concept Milash, while Zegeye Woldemariam presents an interconnected historical map of the south-west Ethiopian region Kaffa by Friedrich Julius Bieber.

Florian Balbiani and Albert Feierabend