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Print by Madalena & Constança Arouca
"Map 2 The Outer Hebrides Palimpsest (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1677)
This map is part of a series commissioned by King James VI during his attempt to pacify the “most barbarous Isle of Lewis”. It is of little strategic interest, as it charts two nearby uninhabited islets of no economic significance, but it has one unique feature: the engraver was clearly working from a palimpsest in vellum and decided to copy into the plate the still legible underlying text – a text which has absolutely no connection to the region depicted (it appears to be a list of penances compiled by the Observant Franciscan Friars of Aberdeen)."
