A large, detailed engraving of a mountainous region featuring towns like Moustier, Pontarlin, and Malnoz, with decorative cartouches and heraldic shields at the bottom and sides.

A brief report on these maps, together with a short introduction on how they are to be used.

These maps cover 30 common German miles from west to east, and 20 from south to north. Each of these contains 1 hour and 36 minutes of foot-travel. Because the borders of other territories appear through this shape or figure of the maps, they are all distinguished from the Bernese territory by broken or dotted black lines.

The true longitude of any place, that is, how much one location lies further to the east or west than another, is to be determined as follows. Stretch a string across equal numbers of the upper and other posts until the location in question falls exactly under the string. From this, you may learn how much earlier or later one place experiences sunrise, sunset, eclipses, and other aspects relative to another, namely: First, find the true longitude of both locations; look for the discovered numbers in the adjacent table, which has the title Longitudinis tabula Table of Longitude, in the first and second little windows on the left hand. On the right hand, you will find four other little windows; in the first are the standing minutes, in the second the seconds, in the third the thirds, and in the fourth the fourths, together with their fractional numbers. Place these discovered numbers for each location under one another and subtract the smaller from the larger. The remainder indicates the desired difference, regarding how much time one location has before another, day or night, etc.

In the same manner, the latitude or elevation of the pole for any place may be learned, namely: Stretch a string towards both feet, across equal numbers, until the most level place falls in the middle of the string. Then you have the full height of the same place, upon which any sundial can be set up. It may also be learned from this in the summer, when the month comes in which the sun enters the first degree of Cancer, how much longer the longest day is in one place than in another. For this, the table indicated here serves that is titled Longitima die Longest day. You learn this in every form on these maps, as one has learned above from the Longitudinis tabula Table of Longitude, regarding how much earlier or later the sun rises or sets in one place compared to another, etc.

On the same day at noon, when one has the pole elevation of a place, one can determine the height of any erected object from its shadow and do so as follows: First, look in the table titled Gnomonis & umbre Of the Gnomon and Shadow in the first little window on the left hand for the number of the pole elevation of the same place. From there, looking directly towards the right hand, you will find four little windows containing degrees, minutes, seconds, and thirds, together with their fractions. These always relate to 60, just as the shadow at noon on the longest day relates to the height of the erected body.

Therefore, when it is noon, one must measure the shadow with whatever measure you wish and then proceed according to the rule of three, namely: the number that was found in the four windows goes to the left hand, the number of the common shadow goes in the middle, and 60 goes to the right hand. Multiply this with the middle number and divide the product by the first number on the left, and what results from this reveals the height of the object. Example: In Bern, the pole height is 46 degrees and 54 minutes. In the table of the Gnomon in the four windows, I find 25 degrees and 33 minutes. According to this, I measure at noon on the longest day the shadow of the cathedral tower, and it is 85 2/3 measuring-feet. Therefore, I say: 25 degrees and 33 minutes produce 85 2/3 feet; how much do 60 produce? Multiply these 60 by 85 2/3, resulting in 5110, which I divide by the 25 degrees and 33 minutes, and this results in 200 measuring-feet. That is the entire height of the cathedral tower from the ground up to the roof, which I have learned from the shadow on the longest day at noon by the fact that I can learn the pole height of every location on these maps. Thus you may proceed and learn and inquire about this, and much more, as you wish, in whatever place it pleases you.