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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

géographe de cabinet

English translation:

armchair geographer/cartographer

Added to glossary by philgoddard
Dec 17, 2014 12:20
9 yrs ago
French term

géographe de cabinet

French to English Social Sciences Geography The history of maps
The following is from a sociological history of maps. The text is discussing the way in which maps made life easier in the 18th century. This sentence gives an example of one way in which maps made life easier by making travel easier. It refers to maps being drawn up by 'un géographe dit « de cabinet »'. The footnote refers to 'Representation and Power' by S Lubar in Technology and Culture magazine, which I don't have access to. How would you translate this term? Does it imply that the geographer was of a certain rank, or it is talking about the fact that they drew up the map in an office? Here's the French and my translation:

Difficulté à voyager au XVIIIe siècle, puisque les cartes générales sont souvent produites par un géographe dit « de cabinet »9, et qu’elles sont parfois utilisées par le public pour suppléer au voyage.

First, the difficulty of travelling in the 18th century, since general maps were often produced by a “de cabinet” geographer, and were sometimes used by the public as a substitution for travel.
Proposed translations (English)
4 armchair geographer/cartographer
3 desktop geographer
Change log

Dec 17, 2014 15:13: philgoddard changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"

Dec 26, 2014 20:34: philgoddard Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (3): BrigitteHilgner, B D Finch, philgoddard

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Discussion

Delaina (asker) Dec 17, 2014:
I like what you've done, but still feel 'armchair' jars. Going to try: "since cartographers could usually produce general maps without ever leaving their offices".
philgoddard Dec 17, 2014:
It doesn't matter that desktop and armchair are modern. You don't need to find an 18th-century-sounding term - just take out the quotation marks and say "maps were often produced by armchair cartographers", perhaps adding something like "who had never visited the locations concerned."
Delaina (asker) Dec 17, 2014:
office cartographers Thanks all. This text makes reference to a term used at the time (18th C), and I feel both desktop and armchair are a little modern. I'm wondering about:

'First, the difficulty of travelling in the 18th century, since general maps were often produced by people known as “office” cartographers (who produced maps without setting foot on the land themselves), and were sometimes used by the public as a substitution for travel.
BrigitteHilgner Dec 17, 2014:
Given B.D. Finch's research results, I wonder whether cartographer isn't the appropriate expression in English. (See the comment about Bellin):
https://books.google.de/books?id=75bpxYE_-coC&pg=PA25&lpg=PA...

Proposed translations

2 hrs
Selected

armchair geographer/cartographer

Thanks to B.D. for the reference, but I think armchair conveys a more instant meaning than tabletop.
Peer comment(s):
neutral B D Finch : I was thinking along those lines: smoking jackets and slippers etc., but decided that implies they were dilettantes who just chatted about the subject, when they were probably quite serious and hard-working, just rather pre-scientific.
24 mins
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3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
51 mins

desktop geographer

http://cltr.blogspot.fr/2008/05/gographes-de-cabinet.html
"Les géographes de cabinet dressent leurs cartes à partir de plusieurs sources humaines et matérielles, faute d’effectuer eux-mêmes des relevés sur le terrain."

I think it is probably OK/necessary to improvise here. This is about 17th and 18th century gentlemen who drew maps and wrote treatises in the comfort of their libraries without getting their boots muddy in the pursuit of any first-hand observations.
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