Bernese Regional Map 1801 – Das Bernergebiet nach Murdochs Entwerfungsart

Antique map titled “Das Bernergebiet nach Murdochs Entwerfungsart 1801”, presenting the Bernese region of Switzerland at the dawn of the 19th century. The map is drafted using Murdoch’s projection method (Entwerfungsart) and captures a wide swath of central Switzerland in fine detail.  The Swiss capital city of Bern is clearly marked near the center, as are the lakes of Biel (Bielersee) and Murten (Murtensee), and surrounding cities including Thun,  Solothurn, Biel and numerous surrounding towns, villages, and routes. The terrain is depicted through strong hachuring that highlights the Jura mountains to the north and the rising Alps to the south. This rare regional engraving offers a valuable snapshot of Switzerland’s geography and settlement patterns during the Napoleonic period, combining scientific cartographic technique with the aesthetic clarity of early 19th-century mapmaking.

Attractively framed.

Collector’s Note:
The reference to “Murdochs Entwerfungsart” indicates that this map was drawn according to the cartographic projection system developed by James Murdoch, a Scottish mathematician and geographer whose methods were adopted by several German-speaking mapmakers around 1800. At a time when accurate regional mapping was becoming increasingly important for administration, taxation, and military strategy, projection systems such as those of Murdoch, Bonne, and Mercator offered different ways of balancing scale and curvature. Murdoch’s system was particularly valued for regional maps like this one, where clarity and proportional accuracy across mountainous terrain were essential. This connection situates the map not only in Swiss history, but also in the broader European story of scientific cartography at the beginning of the 19th century.