Geological content on maps and in accompanying texts developed until the end of the 18th century

For many centuries on general geographical maps and early maritime maps geological information was rarely included. The map of the Wadi Hammamat valley, the Borgia world map, the Catalan world map and Carta de nauigar per le Isole nouamente... portolan chart were indicated as examples. Places where minerals occurred were presented mainly using textual descriptions.

Among Renaissance maps and later maps published before the second half of the 18th century, the map of the Kingdom of Bavaria by Philipp Apian and the map of the Duchy of Świdnica in Silesia by Johann Wieland and Matthaus Schubart were discussed as examples. Distribution of raw materials and places of their extraction were shown using simple geometric signs with graphic characteristics for a given period.

Mineralogical maps published in the second half of the 18th century were described based on the example of maps by Jean-Étienne Guettard and Johann Jirasek. Their content was compared with the texts accompanying them, developed under patronage of the contemporary scientific institutions and relevant methods of geological information presentation were described. From the late Renaissance symbols signifying extraction sites of raw materials had simplified and rather random shapes which indicates ‘unhurried’ development of cartographic methods on geological maps.