Printing, cartography and conceptions of place in Renaissance Europe

Abstract

Eisenstein's account of the connection between scientific progress and printing does not apply well to map publication and knowledge of geography. Most of the celebrated figures in map design and publishing in the 16th century were fundamentally copyists and collectors of others' works. In Renaissance Europe, geographers did not strive to be original, but relied on others' measures, adding their own information to extant maps whenever this was possible. They also made maps in multiple genres, and used geographical works not simply as practical tools for trade and politics, but as evidence for Creation and demonstrations of human dominion. Printed atlases displayed the array of map forms, provided exemplars of good work, and made visible points of translation across different genres of geographical representation. In this context, copying and collection were helpful rather than detrimental to knowledge.