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Around the World: Borders and Frames in Two Sixteenth-Century Norman Map Books

  • Camille Serchuk
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Maps and Travel in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
This chapter is in the book Maps and Travel in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

Abstract

This essay examines the complex network of relationships between cartography produced in sixteenth-century Normandy and other contemporary pictorial traditions. Focusing on the border motifs that adorned two volumes of maps made in the 1540s, it argues that the framing devices not only added value and luster to the books, but also helped the viewers of the books approach and understand the maps within them. The decoration of the books asserted their legitimate position in the libraries and on the desks of their owners; they connected the novel depiction of geography to other types of books that invited contemplation and sustained examination. Personalized for their viewers, in this case, the English king and the French crown prince, the borders of these map books drew on specific artistic forms and styles to ensure a warm reception for their appeals for royal patronage and favor.

Abstract

This essay examines the complex network of relationships between cartography produced in sixteenth-century Normandy and other contemporary pictorial traditions. Focusing on the border motifs that adorned two volumes of maps made in the 1540s, it argues that the framing devices not only added value and luster to the books, but also helped the viewers of the books approach and understand the maps within them. The decoration of the books asserted their legitimate position in the libraries and on the desks of their owners; they connected the novel depiction of geography to other types of books that invited contemplation and sustained examination. Personalized for their viewers, in this case, the English king and the French crown prince, the borders of these map books drew on specific artistic forms and styles to ensure a warm reception for their appeals for royal patronage and favor.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Notes on Contributors VII
  4. Maps and Travel: An Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Historical Space
  6. Traveling the Mappa Mundi: Readerly Transport from Cassiodorus to Petrarch 17
  7. The Bestiary on the Hereford World Map (c. 1300) 37
  8. Cultural Landscape in Christian and Jewish Maps of the Holy Land 74
  9. Part II: Use and Reception
  10. Winds and Continents: Concepts for Structuring the World and Its Parts 91
  11. Fictive Travel and Mapmaking in Fourteenth-Century Iberia 136
  12. Les cartes marines comme source de réflexion géographique au XVe siècle 165
  13. Around the World: Borders and Frames in Two Sixteenth-Century Norman Map Books 189
  14. Part III: Travel into Sacred Spaces
  15. The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World 221
  16. Real and Fictive Travels to the Holy Land as Painted in the Florence Scroll 232
  17. Between Nazareth and Loreto: The Role of the Stone Bricks in Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto’ 252
  18. Sacred Topographies and the Optics of Truth: Vasilij Grigorovich Barskij’s Journeys to Mount Athos (1725–1744) 281
  19. Part IV: Word and Images
  20. Antwerp Civic Self-Portraits 315
  21. Fra Niccolò Guidalotto’s City View, Nautical Atlas and Book of Memories: Cartography and Propaganda between Venice and Constantinople 342
  22. How to Represent the New World When One Is Not Andrea Mantegna: Sovereigns in the Americas on Sixteenth-Century Maps 363
  23. Index of Toponyms and Locations 383
  24. Index of Historical, Religious and Mythological Figures 395
  25. Index of Modern Authors 403
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110588774-008

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Notes on Contributors VII
  4. Maps and Travel: An Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Historical Space
  6. Traveling the Mappa Mundi: Readerly Transport from Cassiodorus to Petrarch 17
  7. The Bestiary on the Hereford World Map (c. 1300) 37
  8. Cultural Landscape in Christian and Jewish Maps of the Holy Land 74
  9. Part II: Use and Reception
  10. Winds and Continents: Concepts for Structuring the World and Its Parts 91
  11. Fictive Travel and Mapmaking in Fourteenth-Century Iberia 136
  12. Les cartes marines comme source de réflexion géographique au XVe siècle 165
  13. Around the World: Borders and Frames in Two Sixteenth-Century Norman Map Books 189
  14. Part III: Travel into Sacred Spaces
  15. The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World 221
  16. Real and Fictive Travels to the Holy Land as Painted in the Florence Scroll 232
  17. Between Nazareth and Loreto: The Role of the Stone Bricks in Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto’ 252
  18. Sacred Topographies and the Optics of Truth: Vasilij Grigorovich Barskij’s Journeys to Mount Athos (1725–1744) 281
  19. Part IV: Word and Images
  20. Antwerp Civic Self-Portraits 315
  21. Fra Niccolò Guidalotto’s City View, Nautical Atlas and Book of Memories: Cartography and Propaganda between Venice and Constantinople 342
  22. How to Represent the New World When One Is Not Andrea Mantegna: Sovereigns in the Americas on Sixteenth-Century Maps 363
  23. Index of Toponyms and Locations 383
  24. Index of Historical, Religious and Mythological Figures 395
  25. Index of Modern Authors 403
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