Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a comparative study of the production and role of maps, charts, and atlases in early modern England and France with a particular focus on Paris and London.
Trade ReviewPetto describes an important period in the development of mapmaking, including an increased emphasis on scientific methods of surveying as well as national consolidation and colonial expansion. The Dutch were the preeminent mapmakers of the 16th and 17th centuries, but then the French and English took the stage, producing sea charts and land maps. The French monarchy supported mapmakers financially, considering maps a tool of national and royal glory. The English government was less forthcoming, and English maps were a commercial enterprise paid for by subscription or by printing houses. French maps were so superior that English maps were sometimes simply copies of them with names and boundaries altered; for example, maps of Acadia became maps of Nova Scotia. Petto entertainingly describes 'paper encroachments,' in which the competing nations tried to claim more territory on paper than they held in reality. An opening illustrated chapter on cartouches and atlas title pages illuminates the rhetorical function of maps, 'persuasive documents that participated in the contemporary political, social, or scientific discourses.'. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *
This volume is a fascinating history of the two countries’ mapping and will be essential on any course on the history of cartography for students and for those who wish to know how mapping is interwoven into the societies’ and governments’ requirements and interests of the time. * European History Quarterly *
Christine M. Petto is no stranger to cartography's role in state and identity formation in France. . . .Petto should be commended for producing an excellent comparative study. Mapping and Charting in Early Modern England and France . . . should be required reading for all students of the history of cartography. * Journal of Historical Geography *
Mapping and Charting in Early Modern England and France provides a wealth of information on French and English mapmakers and is particularly strong on marine charts and hydrography. For historians of cartography, as well as those interested in visual rhetoric and state power, Petto’s book is a solid contribution. * Isis *
Following on her book titled When France was King of Cartography, Christine Petto now brings us Mapping and Charting in Early Modern England and France. This little-studied comparative theme allows the author to make striking comparisons between different developments on different sides of the English Channel, in both general history and in the history of cartography. -- David Buisseret, The University of Texas at Arlington
Table of Contents1 Cartographic Imagery and Representations of Power 2 Mapping the Land: County & Regional Mapping in England and France 2 Chart Making in England and France & Charting the English Channel 4 Paper Encroachments: Colonial Mapping Disputes in the Americas 5 Charting the Seas of the East Indies: Commercial Opportunism vs. Royal Approbation
