100th Anniversary of an Iconography on NYC

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David W Dunlap, A Visual Banquet of Manhattan’s Past. New York Times, Oct 29, 2015
www.nytimes.com/2015/10/29/nyreg ... ompelling-past.html

Note:
(a) Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (1867–1944)

(b) Why did the book title have 1498?  Because King Francis I of France was born that year.
(i) Manhattan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan

Quote: "In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France [1494 – 1547; reign 1515-1547; French name: François d'Angoulême; father: Charles, Count of Angoulême]– was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. He entered the tidal strait now known as The Narrows aboard his ship La Dauphine and named the land around Upper New York Harbor 'New Angoulême,' in reference to the family name of King Francis I that was derived from Angoulême in France; he sailed far enough into the harbor to sight the Hudson River which he referred to in his report to the French king as a 'very big river;' and he named Upper New York Bay the Bay of Santa Margarita – after Marguerite de Navarre – the elder sister of the king.

(ii)
(A) Angoulême
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angoulême

Just view the map.
(B) Angoulême
http://angoulêmewww.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/angoul%C3%AAme

Note the pronunciation only.
(C) The county seat was
Château d'Angoulême
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Château_d'Angoulême
(D) county (n): "the domain of a count"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/county

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(c) Barbara Cohen, a book dealer, "brought the centenary [the first of the series was published in 1915] to my attention. The work has taken on a poignant cast in recent years, thanks to the light shed by Jean Zimmerman in the biographical 'Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance,' inspired in part by John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Mr Stokes and his wife, Edith Minturn Stokes, nicknamed 'Fiercely.' "
(i) The biography:
Jean Zimmerman, Love, Fiercely; A Gilded Age romance. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.
(ii) Gilded Age
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age

(d) The six-volume series: "Hundreds of historical images of Manhattan are rendered in sumptuous color or in monochromatic plates produced by intaglio, the method used to print currency. The lines are finer and sharper than fingerprints. The details bear up under scrutiny with a jeweler’s loupe."
(i)
(A) Intaglio (printmaking)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intaglio_(printmaking)
(the incised line or sunken area holds the ink; the direct opposite of a relief print [qv; for the illustration only])
(B) intaglio (n; etymology: Italian)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intaglio
(ii) loupe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loupe

Oxford dictionary says it is a French word, without explaining more.
(iii) Where did the iconography come from?
(A) The second part of the book title said it all: “Compiled From Original Sources and Illustrated by Photo-Intaglio Reproductions of Important Maps, Plans, Views and Documents in Public and Private Collections.”

Maps and so on were compiled (collected) and then reproduced by IN Phelps Stokes and his hired hands.
(B) “The Iconography of Manhattan Island is a scholarly tour de force: the diligent work of IN Phelps Stokes's worldwide research teams scouring public and private collections of maps, guides and obscure source material to complete his encyclopedic monument to New York City.”  Wikipedia
(iv) bear up (vi): "to summon up courage, resolution, or strength <bearing up under the strain>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bear up

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(e) "Some illustrations, composed of double gatefolds, are 28 inches across."

gatefold (n): "FOLDOUT [qv]; especially :  one with a single fold that opens out like a gate"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gatefold

(f) “Because there also existed a 1660 census, Mr Stokes and his collaborators were able to annotate the map with stories of who lived where and what they did. ‘New Amsterdam sprang to life as a fully chronicled settlement, complete, complex, microcosmic,’ Ms Zimmerman wrote.”
(i) New Angoulême
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Angoulême
(New Amsterdam: 1625-1664)
(ii) Please review (b)(i).

(g) “Volume VI, an index and omnium-gatherum, was prefaced by Mr Stokes’s apology to subscribers for the 13-year duration of the project.”

omnium gatherum (n; etymology: Latin [adjective] omnium of all):
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/de ... ish/omnium-gatherum

(h) “In the epilogue of her biography, Ms Zimmerman wrote, ‘None of the classic or contemporary histories of New York could have been written without the Iconography as a source.’  As the author of several of those, I agree. Happy 100th, Stokes.”

For “Happy 100th, Stokes,” revert to the first sentence of (c).