Event Details

End: May 31, 2017
Contact: kbarzman@binghamton.edu

Cartography and the Early Modern Archive

CfP/Panel, Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference, New Orleans

22-24 March, 2018

The investment of sovereignties in mapping for the storage and delivery of geospatial information dates to the fifteenth century, when the Republic of Venice called for “true” representations of fortresses, towns, and contested borderlands in its territories (1460). While the intention was to be systematic, in Venice as elsewhere the development of a comprehensive cartographic archive was slow and uneven. This CfP invites submissions addressing the instrumental use of mapping in the management of the early modern state, with a focus on hand-drawn maps (from sketches to highly finished drawings with watercolor, silver, and gold leaf) intended for circulation in the inner chambers of administration. Also of interest are three-dimensional models of territory or maps in relief. Topics may include techniques for the collection of data and mapping itself although primary interest is in the accommodation of maps in the archive, their relation to archival documents in text, their evolving modalities of representation as instruments of statecraft, the new forms of literacy they demanded, their end-users, and their employment in policy-making, urban planning, empire-building, waging war, diplomacy, and maintenance peace. Geographic focus is unrestricted; temporal limits, c. 1300-1700.

Submissions Guidelines                                    

Proposals should be for 20-minute papers and should include

• - a preliminary title for the paper
• - an abstract of 150 words
• - a 1-page CV, including current institutional affiliation(s)
• - current contact information

Submit your proposal to kbarzman@binghamton.edu by Wednesday, May 31, 2017. Subject line: “RSA – Cartography and the Early Modern Archive.”