The Self-Made Map: Cartographic Writing in Early Modern France

Description

In this wide-ranging work, Tom Conley demonstrates that a "new cartographic impulse" during the French Renaissance gave rise to a new sense of being, one defined in part by the relationship between self and space. Conley traces the explosion of interest in mapmaking with the discovery of the New World, and discusses the commensurate rise of cartographic writing-writing that "holds, penetrates, delineates, and explores space." Richly illustrated throughout, The Self-Made Map combines art, geography, history, literature, and printing to chart a clear historical transformation, along the way linking geographical discoveries, printing processes, and political awareness.

Tom Conley is Lowell Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and chair of visual and environmental studies at Harvard University.

"This book is a formidable display of interdisciplinary learning; it offers close and provocative new readings of works by writers unfamiliar and familiar." -Modern Language Quarterly "Relating cartography to early modern self-fashioning, Conley provides the concept of 'the self-made map' with an extensive graphic material framework that promises to reshape how his readers see early-modern books and maps as material signifiers of self and nation." -Tim Murray, Cornell University "Conley has written an interesting book, eclectic in scope, concerning the impact of a new cartographic impulse on literature during the Renaissance in France. . . . The book is handsomely produced and contains numerous illustrations . . . A meaningful addition to the history of cartography." -Choice