The significance of the Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography’s World Atlas in Croatian atlas cartography

Abstract

The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography has been publishing general purpose geographical atlases since the 1960s. The most prominent of these is the World Atlas, which has seen seven editions, edited by several editors-in-chief, who mostly retained the initial concept of the atlas, but introduced new editorial ideas and styles. It is the only wholly Croatian world atlas, commercially among the most successful publications of the Institute of Lexicography, and one of the most widespread atlases in Croatia. Therefore, it is presumed that it was of exceptionally high significance in the production of geographical world atlases in Croatia. The goal of this paper is to show whether this presumption is justified. An analysis of some characteristics (ideas, specificities, atlas structure and chapters, maps, approaches, writing style) of the Institute’s and selected translated world atlases in the period from the printing of the first (1961) to the last Institute’s atlas (2008) was made, and the results were compared in order to achieve the goals of this research: a) identify the similarities and differences (specificities) of the Institute’s atlas in regard to atlases of other publishers, b) estimate the influence of the Institute’s atlas in spreading geographical knowledge, and c) determine its significance in Croatian atlas cartography. The research results point towards the exceptional importance of the Institute’s atlas, which stems from its specificities. It stands out among the others because it depicts the world from a Croatian perspective, reflects a high level of professionalism in content processing by applying the principles of comprehensiveness and consistence, contains a strong textual component, sets norms in writing geographical names from foreign languages, presents its own maps, and applies a lexicographical writing style.