8/30/2023 0 Comments New world map![]() ![]() In 1988 Dr Dallas Pratt gave the Museum over two hundred Renaissance maps of the New World-a collection acclaimed by scholars as one of the finest holdings of printed world maps in existence. They were treasured for their exquisite artistry and celebrated as expressions of intellectual endeavour, whereby the vastness of the known world was presented in two-dimensional form on paper. Made for buyers who preferred to venture across the oceans only in their imaginations, these printed masterpieces by artists such as Dürer and Holbein were made specifically to adorn the walls of merchants and princes. However, some pre-eminent maps of this period were made primarily as elaborate expressions of patriotic sentiment and were never intended to be used as sea charts. Such precision was entirely practical: only by exact measurement could the rich New World territories be claimed, plundered and ruled by their Old World conquerors. Whereas medieval maps illustrated theology rather than geography, the Renaissance revived the classical discipline of scientifically mapping land mass. Subsequent European dominance of the Americas was achieved by detailed maps. In little more than two months, Columbus had discovered a world ‘new’ to Europe and claimed it on behalf of Castile. Christopher Columbus famously set sail in August 1492, the same year that Granada finally fell to his patrons, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. (Such bounty had previously been paid as tribute by the Moors.) To avoid the humiliation of bartering with Portugal over trade through Africa, it thus became necessary to finance adventurers willing to seek out new trade routes with the East by travelling west. ![]() ![]() After its marriage alliance with Aragon in 1469 and the subsequent reconquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada (completed in 1492), Castile looked seawards.īy claiming Granada for Christ, the Spanish monarchs severed trade ties with African markets dealing in luxury goods. Portugal’s great rival, Castile, had been slower to take up the challenge of oceanic exploration. By venturing into the realms of sea monsters – grotesquely illustrated on contemporary maps as matters of fact rather than fantasy – Portugal had laid claim to the Madeira islands and the Azores by 1427, and then went on to explore the west coast of Africa. Portugal launched the first open sea explorations in the early 15th century, breaking with the coastal sailing tradition of keeping land in sight as an aid to navigation. The ‘New World’ was constantly changing shape on maps made from the 15th to 17th centuries as European cartographers learned more from the navigators, who had ventured forth across the Atlantic in search of treasure-notably pearls, gold, and spices. Illustrating the changing shape of the Americas as Renaissance cartographers (working from ancient and medieval sources) learned more of the New World, this is the third in a series of extensively illustrated catalogues produced by Scala Arts and Heritage Publishers to showcase the core collections of the American Museum in Britain. New World, Old Maps is a rotating display of the acclaimed historic map collection formed by Dallas Pratt, co-founder of the American Museum in Britain, Bath, and celebrates the publication Mapping the New World-Renaissance Maps from the American Museum in Britain. ![]()
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