With the development of cartography, the history of landscapes has taken more and more importance to delineate the development of social settlements. As cited from [1] the illustration, let us take the famous depiction of Napoleon’s march on Moscow published by Charles Joseph Minard in 1861 ( a detailed description can be found in Tufte ). The author engages the readers in the exploration of the fate of Napoleon’s army in the Russian campaign of 1812-1813. Beginning at the Polish-Russian border, the thick band shows the size of the army at each position. The path of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow in the cold winter is depicted by the dark lower band, which is tied to temperature and time scales. Tufte identified six separate variables that were shown within Minard’s drawing. First, the line width continuously marked the size of the army. Second and third, the line itself showed the latitude and longitude of the army as it moved. Fourth, the lines themselves showed the direction that the army was travelling, both in advance and retreat. Fifth, the location of the army with respect to certain dates was marked. Finally, the temperature along the path of retreat was displayed. It can also be noted that, despite of the schematic character of the drawing with its rudimentary cartography, Minard depicted some features of the underlying territory (specifically, rivers and towns) he deemed essential for the understanding of the story.

(src Adrienko et al.)

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