JF Ptak Science Books    Post 1697

[This is an addition to an earlier post here featuring dozens of maps of imaginary places.]

I suppose that this map, “The Open Country of Woman’s Heart, Exhibiting its internal communications, and the facilities and dangers to Travellers therein” may well abe a reverse insight into woman, or at least an insight into what the early 19th century thought might be penetrating insight.

I can see four distinct parts of this heart, with a fifth element existing at the heart’s center–love.   The regions surrounding love central are not entirely appealing by today’s standards, and were more than likely the work exhumed from a male surveyor’s approximations.  The overall map as so:

[Source: the Beauty, Virtue and Vice website (here)]

At the very center lies the City and District of Love:

penetrated somewhat at the lower left by a morsel-shaped lake running through the Land of Constancy.  Running due south are some rather appealing places in the Land of Sentiment:  Platonic affection, hope, enthusiasm, good sense, discrimination, and at the very bottom bit, prudence. 

The remaining autopsy is somewhat less generous, at least from our position here in 2012:  the lands surrounding the Land of Sentiment and the heart’s heart are Love of Admiration, Land of Coquetry, Land of Selfishness, Region of Sentimentality, Love of Dress and Love of Display.  And within these lands exist uncomfortable accommodations.

And the details, in four sections; the first, the northwest quadrant, or the right atrium:

The southwest quad, or right ventricle:

The north east quad, or left atrium:

And of course the fourth quadrant, the south east or left ventricle: