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From: (Nathaniel Taylor)
Subject: Re: Early examples of family-tree drawings
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 14:52:38 -0400
References: <3B66B3A2.BE74815D@merl.com>


In article <>, (Joe Marks) wrote:

>Hi! I'm a computer scientist who works on information
>visualization (among other things). Graph drawings (aka.
>node-link diagrams, circle-and-arrow charts, etc.) are used
>for visualizing all kinds of information. There are books on
>graph drawing, an annual graph-drawing symposium, and an
>active community of people who develop algorithms and
>systems for drawing graphs by computer.
>
>However, the history of graph drawing has not been properly
>documented. I'm currently researching this topic for a paper
>that will be presented at the next graph-drawing symposium
>(http://www.ads.tuwien.ac.at/gd2001/). It's likely that
>drawings of family trees were some of the first graph drawings.
>I'm therefore trying to track down the earliest known family-tree
>drawings. I'd appreciate any suggestions for where I might look.
>And I will of course acknowledge the source of any examples
>that we include in our paper.
>
>Thanks in advance for your help!
>
>-- Joe Marks

There is an excellent book on this subject (a subject I have also done
extensive research on myself). The book is:

Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, _L'ombre des anctres: essai sur l'imaginaire
mdival de la parent_ (Paris: Fayard, 2000) 458 pp.

This is based on earlier articles she has written, including an excellent
one on "La gnse de l'arbre gnalogique".

Briefly put, the earliest widely-disseminated diagrams are in the
commentaries on the Apocalypse of Beatus of Liebana (MSS from late 9th to
mid 10th c. onward), and the 'stemmata graduum' or kinship tables of the
Roman and canon law texts, from MSS of the early 9th century onward (on
which see Hermann Schadt, _Die Darstellungen der Arbores Consanguinitatis
und der Arbores Affinitatis: Bildschemata in juristischen Handschriften_
[Tbingen: Ernst Wasmuth, 1982]), and in the surviving charts of the
Carolingians, Ottonians, and sundry others (Angevins, etc.) from the
eleventh century, in the Rhineland & France. There are many different
sorts of genealogical charts in MSS of the 12th century onward. Some of
the chart-drawing techniques used in genealogies had been previously
employed in more abstract contexts in other early medieval MSS.

I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me off list for more information.

Nat Taylor

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