Intellectual and Imaginative Cartographies in Early Modern England

Taking as its focus an age of transformational development in cartographic history, namely the two centuries between Columbus's arrival in the New World and the emergence of the Scientific Revolution, this study examines how maps were employed as physical and symbolic objects by thinkers, writers and artists. It surveys how early modern people used the map as an object, whether for enjoyment or political campaigning, colonial invasion or teaching in the classroom. Exploring a wide range of literature, from educational manifestoes to the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare, it suggests that the early modern map was as diverse and various as the rich culture from which it emerged, and was imbued with a whole range of political, social, literary and personal impulses. Intellectual and Imaginative Cartographies in Early Modern England, 1550-1700 will appeal to all those interested in the History of Cartography

Patrick J. Murray, PhD, is a researcher specialising in early modern literature. His primary research and teaching interests focus on the interdisciplinary interfaces of cartography, literary representation and cultural fashioning in the period 1550-1750.

Introduction: Weaving the Net / Chapter 1: 'they say the world's in one of them': The World of the Map / Chapter 2: 'Thou by thine arte dost so anatomize': Embodying the Map in John Speed and Michael Drayton / Chapter 3: Judging the Plot of Ireland in Spenser's A View of the Present State of Ireland / Chapter 4: 'There is none so good lernynge': Cartography and Cartographic Instruments in Early Modern English Educational Treatises / Chapter 5: Francis Bacon and Geographic Science / Chapter 6: Plotting Marlovian Geographies / Chapter 7: Wenceslaus Hollar's Cartographies / Conclusion: Mapping the Stars. And the Future