Now that the copyright has expired on James Joyce’s work, a whole host of articles inspired by the great writer’s work are making their way into the world. But few are as beautifully made, or as faithful to their source material, as the Leopold’s Day map of Dublin. The map is made up of places and businesses in the city that were mentioned or alluded to in Ulysses and were in existence on June 16th, 1904. Look closer, and you’ll see that the river and water are waves of text, extracts from Ulysses woven into the fabric of the map. The primary typeface used is Berling, which the makers say is a faithful digital rendition of the typeface used in the first edition of Ulysses, and the map is lithographically printed on premium paper.
The large map measures one metre by 70 centimetres and took three years to research and produce. At first glance it looks like an elegant textual map and it takes closer inspection to reveal its true literary colours. Just over 800 were printed, and they cost €125 (unframed) from Leopoldsday.com. A clever and beautiful way to respect our literary heritage? We think so.
