Mapping and Charting in Early Modern England and France: Power, Patronage, and Production(Toposophia: Thinking Place/Making Space)

Mapping and Charting for the Lion and the Lily: Map and Atlas Production in Early Modern England and France 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, the cartographic center of production from the late seventeenth century to the late eighteenth century, and London, which began to emerge (in the late eighteenth century) to eclipse the once favored Bourbon center. The themes that carry through the work address the role of government in map and chart making. In France, in particular, it is the importance of the centralized government and its support for geographic works and their makers through a broad and deep institutional infrastructure. Prior to the late eighteenth century in England, there was no central controlling agency or institution for map, chart, or atlas production, and any official power was imposed through the market rather than through the establishment of institutions. There was no centralized support for the cartographic enterprise and any effort by the crown was often challenged by the power of Parliament which saw little value in fostering or supporting scholar-geographers or a national survey. This book begins with an investigation of the imagery of power on map and atlas frontispieces from the late sixteenth century to the seventeenth century. In the succeeding chapters the focus moves from county and regional mapping efforts in England and France to the “paper wars” over encroachment in their respective colonial interests. The final study looks at charting efforts and highlights the role of government support and the commercial trade in the development of maritime charts not only for the home waters of the English Channel, but the distant and dangerous seas of the East Indies.

Table of Contents:
1 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

About the Author :
Christine Marie Petto is professor of early modern European history at Southern Connecticut State University.

Review :
Petto 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.