While reading Justin E. H. Smith's newly released The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is I came across an interesting discussion starting on page 160 of what sounded to me like a layout construction proposal by none other than Gottfried Leibniz.
Smith notes that in 1711 Leibniz suggested building something like a temporary layout of Russia's terrain on the floor of a dining hall for purposes of providing dinner entertainment for Tsar Peter the Great of Russia and his entourage during a diplomatic visit to Germany. If you're a long time reader here you know I've talked a little about H. G. Well's floor layouts in his book Floor Games, Pretty Village toy town floor layouts, as well as floor layouts scattered throughout Meccano Magazine, as precursors to today's model railroad layouts. In Leibniz's layout there aren't any trains of course, but he does talk about building a three dimensional surface on a floor, complete with depressions for streams and seas so that when water was poured in them they would simulate the flow of water through the land. Miniature model people were also to be included. The 'operation' and perusal of this layout was to have replaced more conventional dinner theatre as entertainment for the delegation. Unfortunately, we're informed this layout was never built.
This story, although not intended to be interpreted as I have, underlines to me how little I know about the history of layouts. They're likely related to maps, and maybe to certain types of pre-modern and early modern scientific apparatus, or even military campaign planning devices. I found it surprising that reference to them can be found in the early 18th century, and they probably stretch much further back than that.
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