Southern Continent Imagery: World Maps, 1527-1619

Abstract

The completion in 1522 of Magellan's expedition to circumnavigate the world revealed to Europeans the sighting of Tierra del Fuego. This significant event re-energised the unresolved debate about the possible existence of a southern continent. While not all mapmakers were sufficiently encouraged to represent it on their maps, some assumed Tierra del Fuego was the northern tip of continental landmass in the southern hemisphere and over the next hundred years or so depicted their speculative representation of it on their world maps.

Principal among those were mapmakers in Antwerp, Dieppe, Venice and Amsterdam who, lacking additional information, chose to populate the interior of their representation with imagery. Examination of the imagery shows that it is comprised of a number of distinct genres identified as Text, Nature's Marvels, Ethnographic Representations, Geometry, Allegory and Portraiture. On some maps a single genre may appear but on others multiple genres are seen.

Reasons for mapmakers' use of these genres include familiar explanations such as decoration, concealment of ignorance and avoidance of horror vacui. Conclusions such as these however do not take into account the nature of the imagery, how it was employed, when it was used and what its purpose might be. Thus, the possibility that the genres may have been adopted for other reasons is not taken into account.

This study examined the genres on sixty-nine printed world maps, one printed globe and seven manuscript world maps produced over a one-hundred-year period. It revealed that Text was used by some Flemish mapmakers; Nature's Marvels were the choice of the Venetians; and the Normans focused exclusively on Ethnographic Representations in the southern continent of their maps and their atlases. It was the Dutch mapmakers who designed and made use of multiple genres including Geometry, Allegory and Portraiture. Taken together this research concludes that these genres were employed for reasons other than to conceal uncertainty or simply to fill empty space decoratively. Their use was deliberative and they were chosen to serve a range of functions including educational, cultural and socio-political purposes. Show more