Imago Mundi MS 34-46

Life and career

Cornelis Koeman (1918-2006), always addressed informally as 'Cor', was born in North Holland, and graduated in Geodetic Engineering in 1951 from what later became the Technical University of Delft. After working as a lecturer in Delft, he moved in 1957 to the University of Utrecht. In 1968 he was promoted Professor, to the new Chair of Cartography. He retired in 1981.

He had received a doctorate in 1961 for his thesis, 'Collections of Maps and Atlases in the Netherlands: Their History and Present State', published in 1961 by Brill as Supplement III of Imago Mundi. His chief academic achievement was Atlantes Neerlandici (5 vols, Amsterdam, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1967-71), a comprehensive bibliography of Dutch atlases before 1880. A supplement covering 1880-1940 was published in 1985.

An obituary by Günter Schilder, with a bibliography by Peter van der Krogt, appeared in Imago Mundi 59:1 (2007), pages 105-13.

Work for Imago Mundi

Koeman was fluent in English. In 1962, after lengthy negotiations since 1960, he took over as 'Executive Editor' of Imago Mundi, within the new administrative structure established by RA Skelton following the death of Roukema. (Skelton remained 'Editor-in-Chief' or 'General Editor'.) The Geographical Institute of the University of Utrecht provided an office for Imago Mundi, and financial support from the Gulbenkian Foundation allowed Koeman to employ a secretary, Mrs Gepkens.

Disputes had arisen with Imago Mundi's printers/publishers, Mouton & Co at The Hague. Koeman and Skelton therefore retrieved the copy for issue XVI ('1962'), which Roukema had delivered to Mouton & Co shortly before his death. After fruitless negotiations with EJ Brill of Leiden, this issue was published by Nico Israel of Amsterdam in May 1963. Koeman was then responsible for issues XVII onwards.

In 1970 Koeman asked to be relieved of his duties from the beginning of 1971. Discussions about a successor were incomplete when Skelton died following a motor accident in early December 1970. It was then agreed that Koeman and Mrs Gepkens would see Imago Mundi XXIV and XXV through the press, and that XXV would be a Skelton memorial volume. Eila Campbell, appointed as the new General Editor in March 1971, would take over from issue XXVI. She eventually took over fully in 1973, after various delays with the Skelton memorial volume, though she had prepared the copy for XXVI during 1972. She had also assisted Mrs Gepkens with the Skelton volume, after pressure of work meant that Koeman was unavailable.

Koeman's Imago Mundi papers

Koeman's filing was extremely careful, with items allocated serial numbers in chronological sequences. It is still in excellent order and largely complete. In a letter of 3 May 1971 (serial no 2/448, within MS 35/5), he explained his filing system. This has helped to clarify the descriptions below.

Koeman or Mrs Gepkens would occasionally remove papers from a sequence to meet new circumstances, and then re-file them in a new sequence. This explains most of the gaps that now exist.

One numerical sequence, '1/1-297', is now among Koeman's wider academic papers in the Dutch National Archives. A microfilm copy is catalogued as MS 34. (For a Roukema file also in the Dutch National Archives, see MS 32.)

The Imago Mundi office at the University of Utrecht closed early in 1974. The filing was packed up immediately, but was not brought back to England until spring 1976. It comprised Bagrow's, Roukema's and Koeman's Imago Mundi papers, though some papers of all three were omitted in error. (See above, and Bagrow's and Roukema's introductory notes.) This transferred material was deposited by Eila Campbell in the British Library Map Room in 1978.