The volume discusses the world as it was known in the Medieval and Early Modern periods, focusing on projects concerned with mapping as a conceptual and artistic practice, with visual representations of space, and with destinations of real and fictive travel. Maps were often taken as straightforward, objective configurations. However, they expose deeply subjective frameworks with social, political, and economic significance. Travel narratives, whether illustrated or not, can address similar frameworks. Whereas travelled space is often adventurous, and speaking of hardship, strange encounters and danger, city portraits tell a tale of civilized life and civic pride. The book seeks to address the multiple ways in which maps and travel literature conceive of the world, communicate a 'Weltbild', depict space, and/or define knowledge.
The volume challenges academic boundaries in the study of cartography by exploring the links between mapmaking and artistic practices. The contributions discuss individual mapmakers, authors of travelogues, mapmaking as an artistic practice, the relationship between travel literature and mapmaking, illustration in travel literature, and imagination in depictions of newly explored worlds.
Ingrid Baumgärtner, Kassel, Germany; Nirit Ben Arye-Debby, Beer Sheva, Israel and Katrin Kogman-Appel, Münster, Germany.
"Der Bandbesticht durch die durchgehend hohe Qualität der Beiträge, auf die hier nur
einzelne Schlaglichter geworfen werden können. [...] Der letztlich dann
doch kunstgeschichtlich dominierte Band bietet eine Vielzahl interessanter Beiträge,
die hoffentlich zu weiteren, vertiefenden Forschungen anregen."
Gerda Brunnlechner in: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 47/2 (2020), 253-254
