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What is the human as a form of life? Cartography structures and raises questions about the earth and its inhabitants. Here you will see the map and the globe as a strategy for claiming one’s place in an increasingly connected world. What is the relationship of the actual place maps to the imaginary ones you see in the following cases?
Tabula Peutingeriana: Codex Vindobonensis 324: vollst. Faks.-Ausg. im Original format by Ekkehard Weber. (4th Century).
The Tabula Peutingeriana dates back to the 4th century A.D. This artifact depicts the extent of Roman roads. The surviving Tabula Peutingeriana exists as a parchment scroll from 1265 and comprises eleven sections. The artifact depicts the extensive network of Roman roads. It functions as a pragmatic overview, but exhibits schematic distortions. If you look closely, the upper left corner depicts Constantinople. While this map may be disorienting to a modern viewer, it depicts vital places and the roads connecting them, facilitating trade and travel across the vast Roman Empire.
This cartographic representation blurs the real with the imaginary. Thomas More imagined Utopia (literally translated as “No Place”) as an ideal society. It’s never clear whether More means it in earnest or in jest. For instance, in this image by Hans Holbein, you might notice the round shape of the island, and what appear to be two horns functioning to hold up the cartouche, which might be interpreted as the bells on a fool’s cap, or the horns of the moon, clearly a satiric portrayal. Yet the ship in the foreground suggests it is a literal place to be discovered.
De optimo reip. statu, deque noua insula Vtopia libellus uere aureus, nec minus salutaris quàm festiuus clarissimi disertissimiq[ue] uiri Thomae Mori inclytae ciuitatis Londinensis ciuis & vicecomitis; Epigrammata clarissimi disertissimiq[ue] uiri Tomae Mori pleraq[ue] è Graecis uersa. Epigrammata Des. Erasmi Roterodami by Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus. (1518).
"A map of Quanzhou" - Yuge Zhang. (2023).
"A map of Quanzhou" - Yuge Zhang. (2023).
A map of Quanzhou, made by Yuge Zhang, in MST 20B. A medieval world map, "The Catalan Atlas," calls Quanzhou "Ciutat de Zayton." (Winter 2023).
Quanzhou was the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road. This map shows ships and vessels of all sizes docking and setting sail. Merchants from many different regions exchanged their goods here. Pearl necklaces, ivory ornaments, perfumes, furniture, and sandalwood crafts were among the goods they traded. Erythrina variegata trees were planted at the entrance to Quanzhou's port from the 10th century onwards. The map displays a giant "sea" of red flowers welcoming sailors with their stunning red blossoms. The plant's Chinese name, "Citong", is also reflected in the city's Arabic nickname, "Zayton." Look carefully at the harbor for a person dressed like a Mongolian princess. This hints at the legend that Marco Polo departed from Quanzhou to accompany a Mongolian princess to Persia for a marriage ceremony.
Citation:
Hansen, Valerie. The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World - and Globalization Began. London, UK: Penguin Books, 2021.
“Quanzhou.” Quanzhou | Silk Roads Programme. UNESCO. Accessed April 20, 2023. https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/quanzhou.
This representation of the city of Honscieu provides insight into what mapmakers considered to be important observations about this town. Consider the attention paid to architecture and infrastructure, such as the quality of the roads and bridges and the walls protecting the city.
Atlas Chinensis: being a second part of a relation of remarkable passages in two embassies from the East-India company of the United provinces, to the Vice-Roy Singlamong and General Taising Lipovi, and to Konchi, emperor of China and East-Tartary. With a relation of the Netherlanders assisting the Tartar against Coxinga, and the Chinese fleet, who till then were masters of the sea. And a more exact geographical description than formerly, both of the whole empire of China in general, and in particular of every of the fifteen provinces. Collected out of their several writings and journals by Arnoldus Montanus and John Ogilby, translator. (1671).
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