Refining the list refers to the process of locating all of the records in the database that match the currently selected record. Matching is done by locating all the records whose Title is identical to the Title of the currently selected record, and, optionally, whose Map-Maker is identical to the current record’s Map-Maker.
See the section on Database Fields for a discussion of Titles and Original AMPR Titles. When you refine the list, only the Titles are used, since these are intended to be identical for all entries that refer to examples of the same printed map (or versions of the same map in which the title has remained the same).
Normally you will ask to refine the list by locating all items with the same Title and the same Map-Maker. In some cases, where you suspect the same map may have been listed under different Map-Maker names (e.g. sometimes under the cartographer’s name, and sometimes under the publisher’s name), you might choose to refine by locating all entries with the same Title, regardless of Map-Maker.
Three examples may help to make the purpose of this capability clearer:
1. The one-sheet index map to Popple’s map of the British Empire published in 1733 has the title America Septentrionalis across the top of the map, and a title cartouche in the lower left: "A Map of the British Empire …". A first step in searching for this map might be to search for Map-Maker: Popple and Original AMPR Title: America Septentrionalis. This will return three matching records. The details for these three records can be examined, but it would be good to know whether there are any other records in the AMPR database that might record other instances of this same map. To find out, select Matches Title + Map Maker from the Refine menu. The list that comes up will have five records, two more than before. Looking through the details for these five records shows that two of them were originally recorded in the AMPR without the above-the-map America Septentrionalis as part of the recorded title. But since all five copies have the same Title, the refine operation has turned up the additional two entries, providing us with a fuller series of prices and other information for this particular map.
2. Refining the list can quickly help you find all records related to a particular map, even when locating the map might otherwise be quite difficult. In this example the difficulty is due to the fact that we are searching for a map that has no title. Item 208 in P.D. Burden’s The Mapping of North America is an untitled map, from 1624, of New England and maritime Canada by Sir William Alexander. To try to locate records for this map, select References from one of the field drop-down lists on the Search Screen. Then click the associated List button (to the left of the drop-down list) and pick "Burden, P.D.", and click OK to put "Burden, P.D." into the text entry box. Just type in 208 after the reference name and click on Perform Search. This search will return one record, but this just indicates that the reference to the Burden citation is contained only in one of the possibly multiple records for this map. To find any additional records, select Matches Title + Map Maker from the Refine menu. This will return all additional records for the same map.
3. A map (or related versions of the same map) may be listed under more than one map-maker’s name. The refining capability can help you locate related entries recorded under different map-makers. If you were looking for information about Montanus’s view of St. Augustine, Florida, you might search for Map-Maker = MONTANUS and Region = ST. AUGUSTINE. This would return a number of records for the desired map (Pagus Hispanorum in Florida). Knowing that Ogilby also published maps based on Montanus, you could modify the search by selecting Matches Title from the Refine menu. This requests a search for all entries with exactly the same Title (Pagus Hispanorum in Florida), regardless of Map Maker. The list will be updated and will now contain nearly twice as many items, as all the entries for both the Montanus and the Ogilby publications of this map will be listed. In addition, you will see one entry for this map by the map-maker Dapper. This is for the 1673 German edition of Montanus’s works, published in Amsterdam by Olfert Dapper.