The Cartography of Conflict: Maps, News, and the Visual Arts in Early Modern Europe

FAIN: FEL-267539-20

Jessica Maier
Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA 01075-1423)

Preparation of a book on 16th-17th-century European prints depicting maps and battles that functioned as an early form of news reports.

This project addresses a treasure trove of material: scores of printed “news maps” of sieges and battles that proliferated in early modern Europe. Issued hastily by publishers in cities throughout Europe, these works depicted current events in their geographical context, reporting history as it unfolded. They are a key early form of the news—a visual form—that decisively shaped people’s views about conflict and external threat, and even influenced painted battle scenes in elite halls of state. Their implications for our understanding of early modern culture are considerable. News maps helped to build a sense of collective identity along proto-nationalist lines, while fueling a burgeoning awareness of contemporaneity: a notion that has been considered a hallmark of modernity. In probing these larger themes, this study will go beyond addressing a neglected genre to provide new insight into how, where, and why information is deemed culturally relevant, travels, and becomes visual history.

Associated Products

The origins of news maps: Roman prints of Ottoman-Habsburg conflicts, 1532-41 (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The origins of news maps: Roman prints of Ottoman-Habsburg conflicts, 1532-41
Author: Jessica Maier
Abstract: First appearing in the 1530s, news maps were one of the earliest forms of visual reporting. Printed, often hastily, on single sheets of paper, these works portrayed current events in their geographical context. While a few are known depicting non-military events, the vast majority revolve around battles and sieges. This talk focuses on several of the earliest known examples, which were published in Rome and depict clashes between Ottoman and Habsburg forces in Austro-Hungary and the Mediterranean. From these modest origins the genre was soon to explode in popularity, becoming a key early form of the news. In these works, printmakers were responding to a growing demand for topical information from a public that wanted to know and make sense of recent events, to fit themselves into a larger narrative of unfolding history and place in the world.
Date: 04/21/2021
Primary URL: https://www.rsa.org/page/Virtual2021
Primary URL Description: gateway to the virtual conference program and portal
Secondary URL: https://rsa.confex.com/rsa/21virtual/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/10059
Secondary URL Description: link to my own paper abstract
Conference Name: Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting

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