The depiction of America on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map from 1507—Humanistic geography in the service of political propaganda
This paper demonstrates that the depiction of America on Waldseemüller’s world map of 1507, regardless of its apparently modern depiction, was not a rendering based primarily on geographical knowledge of new discoveries across the Atlantic Ocean. On the contrary, this depiction of America should ins...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Cogent Arts & Humanities |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2016.1152785 |
| _version_ | 1818614282352328704 |
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| author | Martin Lehmann |
| author_facet | Martin Lehmann |
| author_sort | Martin Lehmann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper demonstrates that the depiction of America on Waldseemüller’s world map of 1507, regardless of its apparently modern depiction, was not a rendering based primarily on geographical knowledge of new discoveries across the Atlantic Ocean. On the contrary, this depiction of America should instead be considered to have been much more influenced by the extremely powerful political and economic interests of the Portuguese Crown and the southern German-trading houses in the impending conflict with the Spanish royal family over supremacy in the spice trade with India. After having demonstrated that this map’s depiction of America, which based on an insular conception, neither corresponded to contemporary ideas nor was verifiable in any way at the beginning of the sixteenth century in the European cultural sphere, the map itself will serve—in a way that has not yet been employed in research related to Waldseemüller’s world map—to illustrate the extent to which this supposedly groundbreaking depiction was capable of serving the political and economic interests of the Portuguese and those of the southern German merchant houses in equal measure. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T16:15:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4f3eaff6f8bb4dc6b03a9d8d40c11c48 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2331-1983 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T16:15:32Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cogent Arts & Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-4f3eaff6f8bb4dc6b03a9d8d40c11c482022-12-21T22:25:05ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Arts & Humanities2331-19832016-12-013110.1080/23311983.2016.11527851152785The depiction of America on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map from 1507—Humanistic geography in the service of political propagandaMartin Lehmann0Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat FreiburgThis paper demonstrates that the depiction of America on Waldseemüller’s world map of 1507, regardless of its apparently modern depiction, was not a rendering based primarily on geographical knowledge of new discoveries across the Atlantic Ocean. On the contrary, this depiction of America should instead be considered to have been much more influenced by the extremely powerful political and economic interests of the Portuguese Crown and the southern German-trading houses in the impending conflict with the Spanish royal family over supremacy in the spice trade with India. After having demonstrated that this map’s depiction of America, which based on an insular conception, neither corresponded to contemporary ideas nor was verifiable in any way at the beginning of the sixteenth century in the European cultural sphere, the map itself will serve—in a way that has not yet been employed in research related to Waldseemüller’s world map—to illustrate the extent to which this supposedly groundbreaking depiction was capable of serving the political and economic interests of the Portuguese and those of the southern German merchant houses in equal measure.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2016.1152785americawaldseemüllerringmannvespuccicolumbuscontinensinsulapropagandaindiainterdisciplinary humanities |
| spellingShingle | Martin Lehmann The depiction of America on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map from 1507—Humanistic geography in the service of political propaganda Cogent Arts & Humanities america waldseemüller ringmann vespucci columbus continens insula propaganda india interdisciplinary humanities |
| title | The depiction of America on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map from 1507—Humanistic geography in the service of political propaganda |
| title_full | The depiction of America on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map from 1507—Humanistic geography in the service of political propaganda |
| title_fullStr | The depiction of America on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map from 1507—Humanistic geography in the service of political propaganda |
| title_full_unstemmed | The depiction of America on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map from 1507—Humanistic geography in the service of political propaganda |
| title_short | The depiction of America on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map from 1507—Humanistic geography in the service of political propaganda |
| title_sort | depiction of america on martin waldseemuller s world map from 1507 humanistic geography in the service of political propaganda |
| topic | america waldseemüller ringmann vespucci columbus continens insula propaganda india interdisciplinary humanities |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2016.1152785 |
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