In order to get as full a picture of the processes through which Europeans were apprehending the new worlds they were discovering, we will be consulting a series of maps. In addition, you will be reading some examples of rutters and some excepts from a 1586 ships log; these written materials will allow us to consider how this different form apprehends the world.
I will begin the class reviewing the images on reserve (and some of
the on-line images), and providing an overview of the major shifts and
developments in mapmaking. From there, we will be considering how
these maps operate as documents; in particular, we will be utilizing the
Harley article to consider the cultural functions of mapping practices.
We will also be considering how written accounts--logs and rutters--of
navigation work in relationship to maps. We will also consider how
the text of a rutter or a ships log crosses over to visual images such
as portolan charts and maps.
Images of Maps (on-line resources)
Maps in Rare Book Room:
Peter Apian, Charta cosmographia, G3200 1540 A65
Peter Apian, Cosmographia, GA6 .A48
Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum Orbus Terrarum, G1006 .T5 1964
Battista Agnese, Der Portolan, G 1001 .A45 1546a (j)
Antonio Herrera, Descripcion de las Yndia Ocidentalis, G3295 1601 H47
William Blathwayt, The Blathwayt Atlas, G1805 .B6 1970 (mlv)
Ptolomy, La Geografia (RB) G87.P8 G46 1548
Porcacchi, L'isole piu famose del mondo G500 .P67 1572
Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica (RB or digitized) QB41 .C39 1661
J. B. Harley, "Maps, Knowledge, and Power" (R)
Examples from rutters: pp. 187-195 from Rutters of the Sea (R)