Hi All-



I’m the Review Editor for the “Atlas and Book Review” section of the WAML Information Bulletin. I’m seeking reviewers for the following book (description is taken from Amazon):



Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500, by Alida C. Metcalf, Johns Hopkins University Press, October 2020, ISBN:  978-1421438528.



Beginning around 1500, in the decades following Columbus's voyages, the Atlantic Ocean moved from the periphery to the center on European world maps. This brief but highly significant moment in early modern European history marks not only a paradigm shift in how the world was mapped but also the opening of what historians call the Atlantic World. But how did sixteenth-century chartmakers and mapmakers begin to conceptualize―and present to the public―an interconnected Atlantic World that was open and navigable, in comparison to the mysterious ocean that had blocked off the Western hemisphere before Columbus's exploration?



In Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500, Alida C. Metcalf argues that the earliest surviving maps from this era, which depict trade, colonization, evangelism, and the movement of peoples, reveal powerful and persuasive arguments about the possibility of an interconnected Atlantic World. Blending scholarship from two fields, historical cartography and Atlantic history, Metcalf explains why Renaissance cosmographers first incorporated sailing charts into their maps and began to reject classical models for mapping the world. Combined with the new placement of the Atlantic, the visual imagery on Atlantic maps―which featured decorative compass roses, animals, landscapes, and native peoples―communicated the accessibility of distant places with valuable commodities. Even though individual maps became outdated quickly, Metcalf reveals, new mapmakers copied their imagery, which then repeated on map after map. Individual maps might fall out of date, be lost, discarded, or forgotten, but their geographic and visual design promoted a new way of seeing the world, with an interconnected Atlantic World at its center.



Describing the negotiation that took place between a small cadre of explorers and a wider class of cartographers, chartmakers, cosmographers, and artists, Metcalf shows how exploration informed mapmaking and vice versa. Recognizing early modern cartographers as significant agents in the intellectual history of the Atlantic, Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500 includes around 50 beautiful and illuminating historical maps.



The reviews are due the last week in October. The turn around time is pretty quick as I just received this book from the publisher. Keep this in mind when expressing interest in reviewing. The conclusion ends on page 142, so it is not an extremely long read. I will send specific review guidelines once you’ve been assigned the book. Please contact me off-list if interested.



Ilene

Ilene Raynes

Map Library Program Manager

Rare and Distinctive Collections

(Includes Special Collections, Archives, Government Information Library, and Map Library)

Located in the Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library

University of Colorado Boulder Libraries

184 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309​

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