Fig 8. Mexico (left) and
Cuzco (right) were the most
important American cities
when Georg Braun edited his
first volume of the Civitates
Orbis Terrarum (Cologne,
1573; 1st ed. 1572). The
portraits of their distinguished
respectively Aztec and Inca
sovereigns are emphasized
by locating them outside of
the cities, in the foreground
of the engravings, thus, in
the margins of the maps.
Courtesy The Newberry
Library, Chicago (VAULT
Ayer 135 .B8 1573).
du Sud, contenant des remarques nouvelles et tres utiles … (A very
was published anonymously (it is signed as “Mr. C***”), but it was
curious map of the Southern Sea, containing new and very useful
apparently compiled by the Châtelain family. Although it is usually
remarks …; plate 25). The Southern Sea, as the Pacific Ocean was
attributed to Henri Abraham Châtelain (1684–1743), Jan W. van
known, and America are the center of the world, and all the blank
Waning has recently argued that Zacharie Châtelain (d. 1723) is
spaces around its edges (representing mostly water) are covered
actually the compiler.
with many illustrations, echoing Dutch map borders. And these
The world map shows more than thirty-five insets and vignettes
marginalia are indeed what bring the map its curious character.
related to the age of discovery and the New World, which have been
This map originally appeared in 1719 in the sixth volume
described as an “iconographic feast of imagery for those trying to
of the Atlas Historaique ou Nouvelle Introduction à l’histoire
grasp the implications of European colonial intrusion into societies
à la Chronologie et à la Géographe Ancienne et Moderne, an
whose ‘otherness’ was their most defining feature.” Nine medallions
encyclopedic work with an educational and moralistic purpose,
at the top center portray important explorers—Columbus, Vespucci,
intended as a “new introduction to the history, the chronology and
Magellan, Schouten, Van Noort, L’Hermite, Drake, Dampier, and
the ancient and modern geography, represented in new maps.” A
La Salle—while the tracks of their voyages are marked on the map.
total of seven volumes of this historical atlas were issued over fifteen
Geographic insets provide large-scale maps of significant locations,
years, from 1705 through 1720, in Amsterdam. The Atlas Historique
such as the Gibraltar Strait, the Rio de la Plata, Niagara Falls, and
19