Summer Humanities Institute - Maps and the Arts of Power in Renaissance Europe

Sometime around the 16th century, Europeans fell in love with maps. Fusing a dynamic tradition of mapmaking from the Middle Ages with inspiring ancient models and the new discoveries of Columbus, Magellan, and the other global explorers, Europeans of the Renaissance made, consumed, and appreciated maps in all sorts of settings and for an increasing range of purposes. Maps served history, warfare, education, and government. Above all, maps expressed power of all kinds, whether the power of knowledge, the power of access, or the power of control. Maps became highly desirable consumer goods as well as tools of state. We will learn to “read” early maps in order to order to understand the arguments they make and the kinds of power they express. Students who choose this focus will undertake projects that explore the richness and variety of Carleton’s Special Collections holdings.