Heinrich Kiepert (July 31, 1818 – April 21, 1899) was a German

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

Early life and education

Kiepert was born in Berlin. He traveled frequently as a youth with his family and documented his travels by drawing. His family was friends with

Leopold von Ranke Leopold von Ranke (; 21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of ...

, who inspired Kiepert's creative endeavors. Kiepert was taught by

August Meineke Johann Albrecht Friedrich August Meineke (also ''Augustus Meineke''; ; 8 December 179012 December 1870), German classical scholar, was born at Soest in the Duchy of Westphalia. He was father-in-law to philologist Theodor Bergk.

in school. Meineke influenced Kiepert's interest in

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

. He attended

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. He studied

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

, and

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

Cartography career

He published his first geographical work, with

Carl Ritter Carl Ritter (August 7, 1779September 28, 1859) was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he is considered one of the founders of modern geography. From 1825 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the Univer ...

, in 1840, titled ''Atlas von Hellas und den hellenischen Kolonien''. The atlas focused on

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

. In 1841, he drew the maps which appeared in a groundbreaking book on the Mideast, ''

Biblical Researches in Palestine ''Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea'' (1841 edition), also ''Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions'' (1856 edition), was a Travelogues of Ottoman Palestine, travelogue of 19th-century Palestine an ...

'', written by Edward Robinson. In 1848 his ''Historisch-geographischer Atlas der alten Welt'' was published. In 1854, his

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

, ''Atlas antiquus'' was released. It was translated into five languages. ''Neuer Handatlas über alle Teile der Erde'' was first published in 1855. In 1877 his ''Lehrbuch der alten Geographie'' was published, and in 1879 ''Leitfaden der alten Geographie'', which was translated into English (''A Manual of Ancient Geography'', 1881) and into French. In 1894 he created the first part of a larger atlas of the

ancient world Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...

titled ''Formae orbis antiqui''. He traveled to

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

four times between 1841 and 1848. He created two maps of the region, including ''Karte des osmanischen Reiches in Asien'', in 1844. Furthermore, he made some maps for the Baedeker publishing, mainly for their Egypt and Palestine outstanding guides but also for some of Europe (Paris, London, South Italy, etc.): ''Italie du Sud et la Sicile. Avec excursions aux îles de Lipari, à Tunis, à Malte, en Sardaigne et à Athènes'' (3rd ed., 1872), ''London nebst Ausflügen nach Süd-England, Wales u. Schottland, sowie Reiserouten vom Continent nach England'' (5th ed., 1875); and ''Paris ses environs et les principaux itinéraires des pays limitrophes à Paris'' (3rd ed., 1874). Kiepert taught geography at the University of Humboldt-Berlin starting in 1854. He taught at the university until his death.

Death and legacy

He died in Berlin on April 21, 1899. His son, cartographer

Richard Kiepert Richard Kiepert (September 13, 1846 – August 4, 1915) was a German cartographer born in Weimar. He was the son of famed geographer Heinrich Kiepert. Biography Richard Kiepert studied geography and history in Berlin and Heidelberg. In 1870, he ...

published remaining works by Kiepert after his death, including a map of Asia Minor in 24 sheets on a scale of 1:400,000 in 1902. He also managed the reissuing of ''Formae orbis antiqui''.

Kiepert Island Kiepert Island ( no, Kiepertøya) is the second-largest of the Bastian Islands in the Svalbard archipelago. It lies east of Wilhelm Island and northeast of Spitsbergen. The island consists of two parts: an eastern part with a length of about wit ...

is named after Kiepert.Stadnamn i norske polarområde: Kiepertøya (Svalbard).
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Works

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* J. Partsch "Heinrich Kiepert, ein Bild seines Lebens und seiner Arbeit," in ''Geographische Zeitschrift'', volume vii (Leipzig, 1901)

External links

Kiepert's atlasMaps of Heinrich Kiepert, University of Chicago Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiepert, Heinrich 1818 births 1899 deaths Scientists from Berlin People from the Province of Brandenburg German geographers Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Humboldt University of Berlin faculty Cartographers of the Middle East 19th-century cartographers