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So I came across a sentence while reading the book On The Map:

His[Eratosthenes’] world map was drawn in about 194 BC. No contemporary version exists, but the cartographer’s descriptions were interpreted for a Victorian audience, and this remains the generally accepted and widely used reproduction.

It really makes me wonder what does "a Victorian audience" mean. If the map was drawn in about 200 years BC, how could it be firstly interpreted only during the Victorian era, some 2000 years later? What does "a Victorian audience" here really mean?

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  • "how could it be firstly interpreted only during the Victorian era" --- nothing was said about "firstly".
    – n. m. could be an AI
    Commented Sep 3, 2013 at 22:49

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It means that the interpretation was done with a certain populace (i.e. Victorian) in mind. They use vernacular and idioms particular to that time/era.

So in this case, the person that did the interpretations did so for the Victorian period, and while other translations/interpretations may exist, the named one is still the most widely accepted.

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    "They use vernacular and idioms particular to that time/era." --- Nope, they used Latin.
    – n. m. could be an AI
    Commented Sep 3, 2013 at 22:35
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    Who used Latin? Eratosthenes I'm pretty sure wrote in Greek. The writer of the passage quoted in the question is talking about the interpretation of the descriptions, and I take it he means in a 19th century edition, hence the Victorian audience.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Sep 3, 2013 at 23:38
  • @ColinFine: The fine Victorian gentlemen that published an Eratosthenes-inspired map circa 1880 have used Latin, as opposed to "vernacular and idioms particular to that time".
    – n. m. could be an AI
    Commented Sep 4, 2013 at 11:45
  • -1 The answer lacks evidence or sources.
    – Elzee
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 20:10
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A Victorian audience would be an audience

displaying the standards or ideals of morality regarded as characteristic of the time of Queen Victoria

This usually means

exhibiting the characteristics popularly attributed to the Victorians, esp prudery, bigotry, or hypocrisy

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  • I doubt it - much more likely to be a reconstruction for a late 19th century audience who had seen more accurate contemporary world maps.
    – Henry
    Commented Sep 4, 2013 at 17:41
  • @Henry, perhaps. I had in mind that a Victorian audience might also be rather more philhellenic than would be normal nowadays, but I couldn't find any evidence.
    – Brian Hooper
    Commented Sep 4, 2013 at 19:30
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A VICTORIAN SOCIETY- One of the important things you should know in a Victorian Society was good etiquette (behaviour).

  • Both men and women had their own rules of behaviour.

A Victorian audience would be an audience displaying the standards regarded as the characteristics of the time of Queen Victoria.

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