Haddad, Thomás A. S. (Author)
Circumscribere: International Journal for the History of Science
Volume: 10
Pages: 40--51
After the quick incorporation of the telescope to astronomical research practices in the first decades of the 17th century, lunar cartography (or selenography) flourished admiringly. In a short time maps of the satellite appeared incorporating the representation codes typical of earth cartography. Two decisive moments in this process were the publication, in 1647, of Selenographia, by Protestant lawyer and astronomer J. Hevelius, of Danzig, and soon afterwards, of the lunar maps by Jesuits G.B. Riccioli and F.M. Grimaldi, of Bologna (as part of the former's Almagestum Novum, published in 1651); the Jesuits' maps defined a extraordinary stable visual language and toponymic standard for the moon. Before these landmarks, however, several other proposals for lunar cartographies were made to satisfy different functions and audiences. We suggest here that they may be typologically classified under two categories, one mainly concerned with toponymics and the determination of borders (derived from the first lunar maps by Englishman T. Harriot), and the other connected with topographical representations (heir to G. Galilei's lunar illustrations). Then we examine two maps belonging to each of those traditions published in 1631 and 1645, respectively by Jesuit C. Bruno, in Lisbon (in his book Collecta astronomica ex doctrina etc.), and by Royal Cosmographer to the Spanish Crown M.F. van Langren, in Brussels (Plenilunii / Lumina Austriaca Philippica, loose-sheet). We suggest that their different cartographic strategies are intelligible through divergent paths (which nevertheless touch one another), the political context and the audiences they intended for their maps. The intellectual and professional path of Van Langren, added to his toponymic proposal baptizing 325 lunar accidents with the names of the Spanish Habsburgs and their allies, besides projecting a fantastic European geography on the moon, leaves no doubt that his map represented above all a way to conquest Philip IV's favor by symbolically extending the borders of his empire. C. Bruno also sought Habsburgs' favor through his ideas relating to longitude determination methods. His lunar chart and the work it is inserted in, however, represent an opportunity to obtain recognition among the Society of Jesus astronomers and a wide European litterati audience not directly related to his patronage strategies.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Jarosław Włodarczyk;
(2020)
The pre-telescopic observations of the Moon in early seventeenth-century London: The case of Edward Gresham (1565–1613)
(/isis/citation/CBB434530810/)
Article
Bernard R. Goldstein;
José Chabás;
(2021)
Levi ben Gerson and Augustinus Ricius on the Moon
(/isis/citation/CBB282565786/)
Article
Portuondo, María M.;
(2009)
Lunar Eclipses, Longitude and the New World
(/isis/citation/CBB000932197/)
Chapter
Barrera-Osorio, Antonio;
(2008)
Empiricism in the Spanish Atlantic World
(/isis/citation/CBB000774585/)
Book
Rapoport, Yossef;
Savage-Smith, Emilie;
(2014)
An Eleventh-Century Egyptian Guide to the Universe: The Book Of Curiosities
(/isis/citation/CBB001551711/)
Article
Mosley, Adam;
(2009)
The Cosmographer's Role in the Sixteenth Century: A Preliminary Study
(/isis/citation/CBB001034854/)
Book
Benson, Michael;
Gingerich, Owen;
(2014)
Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space through Time
(/isis/citation/CBB001551783/)
Chapter
Bergasa Liberal, Javier;
(2001)
Análisis de un Modelo Cosmográfico Presentado en el Colegio Imperial de la Compañía de Jesús en Madrid
(/isis/citation/CBB000102765/)
Article
Robert H. van Gent;
(2018)
A Mysterious Cosmographical Map attributed to Nicolaes van Geelkercken. A Note on Historical Celestial Maps, Facsimiles and Fakes
(/isis/citation/CBB892106100/)
Article
Navarro Brotons, Victor;
(2009)
Aspects of the History of Cosmography in Spain in the Last Decades of the Sixteenth Century (until 1606)
(/isis/citation/CBB001034862/)
Article
Chet van Duzer;
(2017)
The Reluctant Cosmographer: Johannes Stöffler (1452–1531) and the Discovery of the New World.
(/isis/citation/CBB153540417/)
Book
Marica Milanesi Grendi;
(2016)
Vincenzo Coronelli Cosmographer
(/isis/citation/CBB286260894/)
Article
Kivelson, Valerie A.;
(2008)
“Between All Parts of the Universe”: Russian Cosmographies and Imperial Strategies in Early Modern Siberia and Ukraine
(/isis/citation/CBB000931592/)
Book
Lestringant, Frank;
Couzinet, Marie-Dominique;
Besse, Jean-Marc;
(2009)
Les méditations cosmographiques à la Renaissance
(/isis/citation/CBB001220751/)
Chapter
Navarro Brotóns, Víctor;
(2004)
Astronomy and Cosmography 1561-1625: Different Aspects of the Activities of Spanish and Portugese Mathematicians and Cosmographers
(/isis/citation/CBB000500302/)
Article
Díaz Hernández, Ignacio;
(2013)
Aportaciones al cálculo de la latitud en la náutica española de principios del siglo XVII contenidas en el manuscrito de Diego Ramírez de Arellano Reconocimiento de los estrechos de Magallanes y San Vicente, con algunas cosas curiosas de navegación (1621)
(/isis/citation/CBB001450485/)
Article
Cormack, Lesley B.;
(2009)
The World at Your Fingertips: English Renaissance Globes as Cosmographical, Mathematical and Pedagogical Instruments
(/isis/citation/CBB001034858/)
Book
Carmen Pérez González;
(2018)
Selene's Two Faces: From 17th Century Drawings to Spacecraft Imaging
(/isis/citation/CBB766285312/)
Article
Bellver, José;
(2008-2009)
Jābir b. Aflaḥ on the Lunar Eccentricity and Prosneusis at Syzygies
(/isis/citation/CBB001024038/)
Chapter
Vicente Maroto, María Isabel;
(2007)
Los cosmógrafos españoles del siglo XVI: del humanista al técnico
(/isis/citation/CBB000953608/)
Be the first to comment!