Geography, Cartography and Nautical Science in the Renaissance

The transformation of the medieval European image of the world in the period following the Great Discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries is the subject of this volume. The first studies deal specifically with the emergence of the concept of the terraqueous globe. In the following pieces Dr Randles looks at the advances in Portuguese navigation and cartography that helped sailors overcome the obstacles to the circumnavigation of Africa and the crossing of the Atlantic, and at the impact of the Discoveries on European culture and science. Other articles are concerned with Portuguese naval artillery, and with attempts to classify the indigenous societies of the newly-discovered lands and to map the interior of Africa.

W.G.L. Randles (Author)

Contents: Preface; Classical models of world geography and their transformation following the discovery of America; The Atlantic in European cartography and culture from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance; The alleged nautical school founded in the 15th century at Sagres by Prince Henry of Portugal called 'the Navigator'; The emergence of nautical astronomy in Portugal in the 15th century; The recovery of Ptolemy's Geography in Renaissance Italy and its impact in Spain and Portugal in the period of the Discoveries; From the Mediterranean portulan chart to the marine world chart of the Great Discoveries: the crisis in cartography in the 16th century; Bartolomeu Dias and the discovery of the south-east passage linking the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean; La configuration cartographique du continent africain avant et après le voyage de Bartolomeu Dias: hypothèses et enseignements; The evaluation of Colombus' 'India' project by Portuguese and Spanish cosmographers in the light of the geographical science of the period; La cartographie de l'Atlantique à la veille du voyage de Christophe Colomb; Colomb découvreur: perceptions contemporaines de son projet et de sa réalisation; La science universitaire en Europe et les découvertes portugaises: Aristotélisme doctrinaire et expérience des navigateurs; Portuguese and Spanish attempts to measure longitude in the 16th century; Pedro Nunes' discovery of the Loxodromic Curve (1537): how Portuguese sailors in the early 16th century, navigating with globes, had failed to solve the difficulties encountered with the plane chart; Le Nouveau Monde, l'autre monde et la pluralité des mondes; La diffusion dans l'Europe du XVIe siècle des connaissances géographiques dues aux découvertes portugaises; The artilleries and land fortifications of the Portuguese and their adversaries in the early period of the discoveries; 'Peuples sauvages' et 'états despotiques': la pertinence, au XVIe siècle, de la grille