How did intricately detailed sixteenth-century maps reveal the
start of the Atlantic World? Beginning around 1500, in the decades
following Columbus's voyages, the Atlantic Ocean moved from the
periphery to the center on European world maps. This brief but
highly significant moment in early modern European history marks
not only a paradigm shift in how the world was mapped but also the
opening of what historians call the Atlantic World. But how did
sixteenth-century chartmakers and mapmakers begin to
conceptualize-and present to the public-an interconnected Atlantic
World that was open and navigable, in comparison to the mysterious
ocean that had blocked off the Western hemisphere before Columbus's
exploration? In Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500, Alida C.
Metcalf argues that the earliest surviving maps from this era,
which depict trade, colonization, evangelism, and the movement of
peoples, reveal powerful and persuasive arguments about the
possibility of an interconnected Atlantic World. Blending
scholarship from two fields, historical cartography and Atlantic
history, Metcalf explains why Renaissance cosmographers first
incorporated sailing charts into their maps and began to reject
classical models for mapping the world. Combined with the new
placement of the Atlantic, the visual imagery on Atlantic
maps-which featured decorative compass roses, animals, landscapes,
and native peoples-communicated the accessibility of distant places
with valuable commodities. Even though individual maps became
outdated quickly, Metcalf reveals, new mapmakers copied their
imagery, which then repeated on map after map. Individual maps
might fall out of date, be lost, discarded, or forgotten, but their
geographic and visual design promoted a new way of seeing the
world, with an interconnected Atlantic World at its center.
Describing the negotiation that took place between a small cadre of
explorers and a wider class of cartographers, chartmakers,
cosmographers, and artists, Metcalf shows how exploration informed
mapmaking and vice versa. Recognizing early modern cartographers as
significant agents in the intellectual history of the Atlantic,
Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500 includes around 50 beautiful
and illuminating historical maps.
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