Abstract
From the 16th century onwards many map-makers and authors provided decorative titlepages or frontispieces at the beginning of their works. These often displayed allegorical images and symbols reflecting the books’ contents, in order to attract potential readers. This contribution looks at some notable examples depicting images of Europe. Similar visual pictures often occur in the cartouches of maps of Europe. One mythological image frequently used was that of the rape of Europa by the god Jupiter disguised as a bull, a fable based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Other representations show Europe seated on a throne, as a superior ruler of other continents or, later, as the sponsor of the arts and the sciences. In some titlepage engravings of the 17th century she is shown defending the continent from the attacks of the Ottomans from the east. Later 19th century images may depict Europe in a more nationalistic role, flanked by each country’s armorial shield.
Highlights
Some say to Crete as its first queen ; others suggest that she was carried across the seas to the more distant land that would later bear her name
As far as is known, there were no direct derivatives of the striking frontispiece over this time and the rival atlas-makers of Mercator and Hondius and his successors did not incorporate a similar figure of Europe in their titlepages or maps images of the other continents were often depicted
There was a unique compilation of maps by Gerard Mercator in 1570-72 known as the Atlas Europae but without either titlepage or frontispiece
Summary
She was carried across the seas to the more distant land that would later bear her name. Allegorical images of Europe in some atlas titlepages, frontispieces, and map cartouches Electronic reference Rodney Shirley, “Allegorical images of Europe in some atlas titlepages, frontispieces, and map cartouches”, Belgeo [Online], 3-4 | 2008, Online since 22 May 2013, connection on 05 February 2021.
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