When the University of Chicago Press launched the landmark History of Cartography series nearly thirty years ago, founding editors J.B. Harley and David Woodward hoped to create a new basis for map history. They did not, however, anticipate the larger renaissance in map studies that the series would inspire. But as the renown of the series and the comprehensiveness and acuity of the present volume demonstrate, the history of cartography has proven to be unexpectedly fertile ground.
Cartography in the European Renaissance treats the period from 1450 to 1650, long considered the most important in the history of European mapping. This period witnessed a flowering in the production of maps comparable to that in the fields of literature and fine arts. Scientific advances, appropriations of classical mapping techniques, burgeoning trade routes-all such massive changes drove an explosion in the making and using of maps. While this volume presents detailed histories of mapping in such well-documented regions as Italy and Spain, it also breaks significant new ground by treating Renaissance Europe in its most expansive geographical sense, giving careful attention to often-neglected regions like Scandinavia, East-Central Europe, and Russia, and by providing innovative interpretive essays on the technological, scientific, cultural, and social aspects of cartography.
Lavishly illustrated with more than a thousand maps, many in colour, the two volumes of Cartography in the European Renaissance will be the unsurpassable standard in its field, both defining it and propelling it forward.
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Part 1
Preface, David Woodward
Setting the Stage
1 Cartography and the Renaissance: Continuity and Change, David Woodward
2 The Role of Maps in Later Medieval Society: Twelfth to Fourteenth Century, Victoria Morse
The History of Renaissance Cartography: Interpretive Essays
Maps and Renaissance Culture
3 Images of Renaissance Cosmography, 1450–1650, Denis E. Cosgrove
4 Renaissance Star Charts, Anna Friedman Herlihy
5 Lunar, Solar, and Planetary Representations to 1650, R. H. van Gent and A. Van Helden
6 Globes in Renaissance Europe, Elly Dekker
7 The Renaissance Chart Tradition in the Mediterranean, Corradino Astengo
8 Isolarii, Fifteenth to Seventeenth Century, George Tolias
9 The Reception of Ptolemy’s Geography (End of the Fourteenth to Beginning of the Sixteenth Century), Patrick Gautier Dalché
10 Map Projections in the Renaissance, John P. Snyder
11 The European Religious Worldview and Its Influence on Mapping, Pauline Moffitt Watts
12 Early Modern Literature and Cartography: An Overview, Tom Conley
13 Literature and Mapping in Early Modern England, 1520–1688, Henry S. Turner
14 Cartography and Literature in Early Modern France, Nancy Bouzrara and Tom Conley
15 Literary Mapping in German-Speaking Europe, Franz Reitinger
16 Maps and Literature in Renaissance Italy, Theodore J. Cachey Jr.
17 Mapping Maritime Triumph and the Enchantment of Empire: Portuguese Literature of the Renaissance, Neil Safier and Ilda Mendes dos Santos
18 Literature and Cartography in Early Modern Spain: Etymologies and Conjectures, Simone Pinet
Technical Production and Consumption
19 Land Surveys, Instruments, and Practitioners in the Renaissance, Uta Lindgren
20 Navigation Techniques and Practice in the Renaissance, Eric H. Ash
21 Signs on Printed Topographical Maps, ca. 1470–ca. 1640, Catherine Delano-Smith
22 Techniques of Map Engraving, Printing, and Coloring in the European Renaissance, David Woodward
23 Centers of Map Publishing in Europe, 1472–1600, Robert Karrow
24 Maps as Educational Tools in the Renaissance, Lesley B. Cormack
25 Maps in Renaissance Libraries and Collections, George Tolias
Maps and Their Uses in Renaissance Governance
26 Maps and the Early Modern State: Official Cartography, Richard L. Kagan and Benjamin Schmidt
27 Portraying the City in Early Modern Europe: Measurement, Representation, and Planning, Hilary Ballon and David Friedman
28 Maps and Rural Land Management in Early Modern Europe, Roger J. P. Kain
29 Warfare and Cartography, ca. 1450 to ca. 1640, John Hale
30 Maps and Exploration in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries, Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Italian States
31 The Italian Map Trade, 1480–1650, David Woodward
32 Cycles of Painted Maps in the Renaissance, Francesca Fiorani
33 Cartography in the Duchy of Savoy during the Renaissance, Paola Sereno
34 Cartographic Activities in the Republic of Genoa, Corsica, and Sardinia during the Renaissance, Massimo Quaini
35 State, Cartography, and Territory in Renaissance Veneto and Lombardy, Emanuela Casti
36 Cartography in the Central Italian States from 1480 to 1680, Leonardo Rombai
37 Cartography in the Kingdom of Naples during the Early Modern Period, Vladimiro Valerio
Portugal
38 Portuguese Cartography in the Renaissance, Maria Fernanda Alegria, Suzanne Daveau, João Carlos Garcia, Francesc Relaño
Spain
39 Spanish Peninsular Cartography, 1500–1700, David Buisseret
40 Spanish Nautical Cartography in the Renaissance, Alison Sandman
41 Spanish Colonial Cartography, 1450–1700, David Buisseret
Part 2
German Lands
42 Cartography in the German Lands, 1450–1650, Peter H. Meurer
Low Countries
43 Surveying and Official Mapping in the Low Countries, 1500–ca. 1670, Cornelis Koeman and Marco van Egmond
44 Commercial Cartography and Map Production in the Low Countries, 1500–ca. 1672, Cornelis Koeman, Günter Schilder, Marco van Egmond, and Peter van der Krogt
45 Maritime Cartography in the Low Countries during the Renaissance, Günter Schilder and Marco van Egmond
46 Mapping the Dutch World Overseas in the Seventeenth Century, Kees Zandvliet
France
47 Maps and Descriptions of the World in Sixteenth-Century France, Frank Lestringant and Monique Pelletier
48 National and Regional Mapping in France to About 1650, Monique Pelletier
49 French Cartography: The ingénieurs du roi, 1500–1650, David Buisseret
50 Representations of Territory by Painters, Engineers, and Land Surveyors in France during the Renaissance, Monique Pelletier
51 The Mapping of Samuel de Champlain, 1603–1635, Conrad E. Heidenreich
52 Marine Cartography and Navigation in Renaissance France, Sarah Toulouse
53 Publishing and the Map Trade in France, 1470–1670, Catherine Hofmann
British Isles
54 Mapmaking in England, ca. 1470–1650, Peter Barber
55 Colonial Cartography in a European Setting: The Case of Tudor Ireland, J. H. Andrews
56 The Kingdom of Scotland: Cartography in an Age of Confidence, Jeffrey Stone
57 The London Map Trade to 1640, Laurence Worms
58 Chartmaking in England and Its Context, 1500–1660, Sarah Tyacke
59 Colonial Cartography under the Tudor and Early Stuart Monarchies, ca. 1480–ca. 1640, Robert C. D. Baldwin
Scandinavia
60 Scandinavian Renaissance Cartography, William R. Mead
East-Central Europe
61 Renaissance Cartography in East-Central Europe, ca. 1450–1650, Zsolt Török
Russia
62 Russian Cartography to ca. 1700, L. A. Goldenberg
Editor and Authors
Bibliographical Index
General Index
David Woodward (1942-2004) was the Arthur H. Robinson Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for more than twenty years. Along with the late J. B. Harley, he was a founding editor of the History of Cartography Project. In 2002, the Royal Geographical Society honoured Woodward with the Murchison Award for his lifelong contribution to the study of the history of cartography.
"The production standards are what readers have come to expect [...] the copy editing is meticulous, the bibliography immense and uniformly accurate, and, above all, the reproduction, deploymenty and keying of images both generous and of the highest consistency and quality. Secondly, the chapters are in the main of the highest standard [...] In short, whilst I do not feel this volume much changes the 'big picture' we hold about the nature and geography of the Renaissance, what it does do is take one empirical location or archive – the map in all its forms – and use this as a site on which to flesh out and scrutinize contentions in intellectual, social and cultural history which have previously been inadequately supported. This is, in and of itself, a massive achievement which should demand the attention of all historians of the Renaissance, not merely those with an interest in science, geography and cartography."
– Robert J. Mayhew, Journal of Historical Geography
"Begun in the 1980s, this project has significantly broadened the scope of this niche in the larger world of historical study [...] This volume, and for that matter the rest of the series, can be an invaluable resource for anyone researching this subject."
– Richard Pflederer, History Today
"As a historian of cartography, I can say with certainty that these volumes are indispensable to any researcher in the field and will be of interest to all those who love maps. Moreover, they can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers, from serious scholars to everyday map aficionados."
– Benjamin B. Olshin, Isis
"The ambition of this comprehensive reference work, treating the Renaissance period 1450 to 1650, is truly remarkable [...] For those who are not map specialists this book is a fundamental starting point, an absolutely essential reference tool that opens up the field of cartography. But even to specialists it is certain to contain unfamiliar material, such is the depth of its coverage."
– Simon Turner, Print Quarterly