History of Cartography, Volume 3
Cartography in the European Renaissance
When the University of Chicago Press launched the landmark "History of Cartography" series nearly thirty years ago, founding editors J. B. Harley and David Woodward hoped to create a new basis for map history. They did not, however, anticipate the larger renaissance in map studies that the series would inspire. But as the renown of the series and the comprehensiveness and acuity of the present volume demonstrate, the history of cartography has proven to be unexpectedly fertile ground.
"Cartography in the European Renaissance" treats the period from 1450 to 1650, long considered the most important in the history of European mapping. This period witnessed a flowering in the production of maps comparable to that in the fields of literature and fine arts. Scientific advances, appropriations of classical mapping techniques, burgeoning trade routes – all such massive changes drove an explosion in the making and using of maps. While this volume presents detailed histories of mapping in such well-documented regions as Italy and Spain, it also breaks significant new ground by treating Renaissance Europe in its most expansive geographical sense, giving careful attention to often-neglected regions like Scandinavia, East-Central Europe, and Russia, and by providing innovative interpretive essays on the technological, scientific, cultural, and social aspects of cartography.
Lavishly illustrated with more than a thousand maps, many in color, the two volumes of "Cartography in the European Renaissance" will be the unsurpassable standard in its field, both defining it and propelling it forward.
About the Author
David Woodward (1942-2004) was the Arthur H. Robinson Professor of Geography Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught for more than twenty years. Along with the late J. B. Harley, he was founding editor of the History of Cartography Project. In 2002, the Royal Geographical Society honored him with the Murchison Award for his lifelong contribution to the study of the history of cartography.
Reviews
"The production standards are what readers have come to expect... the copy editing is meticulous, the bibliography immense and uniformly accurate, and, above all, the reproduction, deploymenty and keying of images both generous and of the highest consistency and quality. Secondly, the chapters are in the main of the highest standard... In short, whilst I do not feel this volume much changes the 'big picture' we hold about the nature and geography of the Renaissance, what it does do is take one empirical location or archive – the map in all its forms – and use this as a site on which to flesh out and scrutinize contentions in intellectual, social and cultural history which have previously been inadequately supported. This is, in and of itself, a massive achievement which should demand the attention of all historians of the Renaissance, not merely those with an interest in science, geography and cartography" – Robert J. Mayhew, Journal of Historical Geography
"Begun in the 1980s, this project has significantly broadened the scope of this niche in the larger world of historical study... This volume, and for tht matter the rest of the series, can be an invaluable resource for anyone researching this subject" – Richard Pflederer, History Today
"The ambition of this comprehensive reference work, treating the Renaissance period 1450 to 1650, is truly remarkable... For those who are not map specialists this book is a fundamental starting point, an absolutely essential reference tool that opens up the field of cartography. But even to specialists it is certain to contain unfamiliar material, such is the depth of its coverage" – Simon Turner, Print Quarterly
