To what extend the circulation of scientific knowledge was shaped by the European imperial geopolitics in the late-eighteenth century? Recruited to fulfill tasks increasingly considered essential to the very workings of imperial administrations, scientific practitioners of the time paradoxically seem to make use precisely of this encroachment in state apparatuses to secure some degree of autonomy for their nascent field. Thus, every material form of circulation of scientific information must be ultimately understood as an act of political consequences. Here we present these ideas through the analysis of two concrete scientific artifacts, which can exemplify the circulation of scientific information inside and across empires: two atlases, one terrestrial and one celestial (the latter being a version of Flamsteed’s famous atlas of 1729, by way of intermediate French editions), produced in Portugal at the turn of the nineteenth century. Discarding the simple assumption that such cartographic artifacts might have a “utilitarian” use to Portuguese imperial administration, we aim to insist on their political and communicative nature, grounded on their modes of participation in trans-imperial pathways of circulation of knowledge, people, practices, and models of scientific authority (entangling Britain, France, and the Americas in multiple time scales). We also highlight how the atlases contribute to the affirmation of new patriotic science in Portugal, and explore the markedly didactic vocation of both objects, which also stress the question of the recruitment and reproduction of a new kind of imperial elite.
{"title":"Mapping Skies and Continents: The Production of Two Portuguese Scientific Atlases in the Era of Napoleonic Expansion (1799-1813)","authors":"I. Kantor, T. A. Haddad","doi":"10.3989/chdj.2021.020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2021.020","url":null,"abstract":"To what extend the circulation of scientific knowledge was shaped by the European imperial geopolitics in the late-eighteenth century? Recruited to fulfill tasks increasingly considered essential to the very workings of imperial administrations, scientific practitioners of the time paradoxically seem to make use precisely of this encroachment in state apparatuses to secure some degree of autonomy for their nascent field. Thus, every material form of circulation of scientific information must be ultimately understood as an act of political consequences. Here we present these ideas through the analysis of two concrete scientific artifacts, which can exemplify the circulation of scientific information inside and across empires: two atlases, one terrestrial and one celestial (the latter being a version of Flamsteed’s famous atlas of 1729, by way of intermediate French editions), produced in Portugal at the turn of the nineteenth century. Discarding the simple assumption that such cartographic artifacts might have a “utilitarian” use to Portuguese imperial administration, we aim to insist on their political and communicative nature, grounded on their modes of participation in trans-imperial pathways of circulation of knowledge, people, practices, and models of scientific authority (entangling Britain, France, and the Americas in multiple time scales). We also highlight how the atlases contribute to the affirmation of new patriotic science in Portugal, and explore the markedly didactic vocation of both objects, which also stress the question of the recruitment and reproduction of a new kind of imperial elite.","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47940964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cartographic information was highly coveted in sixteenth century Europe, especially when it came from Portugal or Spain. Maps and nautical charts produced in the Iberian Peninsula were loaded with sensitive information about the new lands discovered, which made them the object of desire of rival or curious powers. Faced with this, the Spanish and Portuguese institutions tried to limit the excessive dispersion of cartographic material, using several legislative instruments. In theory, the circulation of cartographic information beyond Iberian imperial boundaries was strictly controlled, so the possibility of leakages or exchanges seemed very unlikely. In practice, both leaks and contact occurred constantly. The objective of this article is to illustrate this idea from the identification and analysis of concrete historical events in which the circulation of cartographic information took place. The chronological framework chosen is the sixteenth century, with Spain, Portugal and Italy as the main sites.
{"title":"Circulation and Contacts in Sixteenth Century New Cartography: Spain, Portugal and Italy","authors":"José María Moreno Madrid","doi":"10.3989/chdj.2021.015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2021.015","url":null,"abstract":"Cartographic information was highly coveted in sixteenth century Europe, especially when it came from Portugal or Spain. Maps and nautical charts produced in the Iberian Peninsula were loaded with sensitive information about the new lands discovered, which made them the object of desire of rival or curious powers. Faced with this, the Spanish and Portuguese institutions tried to limit the excessive dispersion of cartographic material, using several legislative instruments. In theory, the circulation of cartographic information beyond Iberian imperial boundaries was strictly controlled, so the possibility of leakages or exchanges seemed very unlikely. In practice, both leaks and contact occurred constantly. The objective of this article is to illustrate this idea from the identification and analysis of concrete historical events in which the circulation of cartographic information took place. The chronological framework chosen is the sixteenth century, with Spain, Portugal and Italy as the main sites.","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46449449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
José María García Redondo, J. M. Moreno, Martín coords, C. Martínez
This article analyzes the links between the first travel accounts of the New World and the production of cartographic images of America in Guillaume Le Testu’s Cosmographie Universelle (1556). Produced in 1556 and dedicated to Admiral of France Gaspard de Coligny, the Norman pilot’s manuscript atlas was created in the context of growing French colonial interest in Terra Brasilis. The transposition of America’s founding narratives into cartographic images as presented in Le Testu’s Cosmographie is interpreted here as an act of translation lato sensu. The translation of the continent’s travel accounts in the strictest sense of the word, and the adaptation of New World information to new audiences and political contexts are also examined in the analysis of this manuscript nautical atlas.
本文分析了纪尧姆·勒泰图(Guillaume Le Testu)的《宇宙图》(Cosmographice Universelle)(1556)中关于新世界的第一批旅行记述与美国地图图像的制作之间的联系。这位诺曼飞行员的手稿地图集制作于1556年,献给法国海军上将加斯帕德·德·科利尼,是在法国对Terra Brasilis日益增长的殖民兴趣的背景下创作的。在勒泰图的《宇宙图》中,将美国建国叙事转换为地图图像,在这里被解释为一种广义的翻译行为。在对这份航海地图集手稿的分析中,还考察了最严格意义上的非洲大陆旅行记录的翻译,以及新世界信息对新受众和政治背景的适应。
{"title":"On the Translation of Founding Narratives into Cartographic Images: America in Le Testu’s Cosmographie Universelle (1556)","authors":"José María García Redondo, J. M. Moreno, Martín coords, C. Martínez","doi":"10.3989/chdj.2021.017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2021.017","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the links between the first travel accounts of the New World and the production of cartographic images of America in Guillaume Le Testu’s Cosmographie Universelle (1556). Produced in 1556 and dedicated to Admiral of France Gaspard de Coligny, the Norman pilot’s manuscript atlas was created in the context of growing French colonial interest in Terra Brasilis. The transposition of America’s founding narratives into cartographic images as presented in Le Testu’s Cosmographie is interpreted here as an act of translation lato sensu. The translation of the continent’s travel accounts in the strictest sense of the word, and the adaptation of New World information to new audiences and political contexts are also examined in the analysis of this manuscript nautical atlas.","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42795110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Juarez and Maximilian. Stories and interpretations in film and literature","authors":"María del Sol Morales Zea","doi":"10.3989/CHDJ.2021.023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/CHDJ.2021.023","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48255348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The voyages of exploration and discovery during the period of European maritime expansion and the immense amount of information and artefacts they produced about our knowledge of the world have maintained a difficult, if not non-existent, relationship with the main historiographical lines of the history of early modern science. This article attempts to problematize this relationship based on a historical account that seeks to highlight the scientific and institutional mechanisms that made the Magellan-Elcano voyage, the first modern voyage, possible. The text argues that this voyage was the first modern voyage because it allowed the construction of a new scientific and cartographic image of the globe and contributed to our understanding of the world as a global world, altering the foundations on which modern European economic and geographic thought was based. In that sense, the voyage was something extraordinary, but not completely unexpected. It responded to a complex process of expansionary policy and technical development that dated back to the 15th century, which in 1519 was sufficiently articulated to carry out a great feat.
{"title":"Making a Global Image of the World: Science, Cosmography and Navigation in Times of the First Circumnavigation of Earth, 1492-1522","authors":"Antonio Sánchez","doi":"10.3989/chdj.2021.014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2021.014","url":null,"abstract":"The voyages of exploration and discovery during the period of European maritime expansion and the immense amount of information and artefacts they produced about our knowledge of the world have maintained a difficult, if not non-existent, relationship with the main historiographical lines of the history of early modern science. This article attempts to problematize this relationship based on a historical account that seeks to highlight the scientific and institutional mechanisms that made the Magellan-Elcano voyage, the first modern voyage, possible. The text argues that this voyage was the first modern voyage because it allowed the construction of a new scientific and cartographic image of the globe and contributed to our understanding of the world as a global world, altering the foundations on which modern European economic and geographic thought was based. In that sense, the voyage was something extraordinary, but not completely unexpected. It responded to a complex process of expansionary policy and technical development that dated back to the 15th century, which in 1519 was sufficiently articulated to carry out a great feat.","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47240393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyzes the frontier line(s) of Brazil proposed by the Portuguese ambassadors (D. Vicente de Sousa Coutinho, D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, and Luís de Sousa Coutinho, the Viscount of Balsemão), drawn on maps and documents sent to Abbé Raynal when he was preparing the 1780 edition of his famous Histoire des Deux Indes. This was accompanied by an Atlas de Toutes les Parties Connues du Globe Terrestre, produced by the French geographer Rigobert Bonne. The objective is, in light of the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso, to compare the lines defended by the ambassadors and those which Raynal and Bonne drew on the map of South America in the Atlas, analyzing the geopolitical impacts.
本文分析了葡萄牙大使(D.Vicente de Sousa Coutinho、D.Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho和Balsemão子爵Luís de Sousa Kutinho)在准备1780年版著名的《独立史》(History des Deux Indes)时向阿贝·雷纳尔(AbbéRaynal)发送的地图和文件上提出的巴西边界线。与之相伴的还有法国地理学家里戈贝尔·邦内制作的《地球地球上的聚会地图集》。根据《圣伊尔德丰索条约》,目的是比较大使们捍卫的界线与雷纳尔和邦恩在阿特拉斯中南美洲地图上绘制的界线,分析地缘政治影响。
{"title":"Cartography in dispute: the frontiers of Brazil in Abbé Raynal’s Histoire des Deux Indes","authors":"Junia Ferreira Furtado","doi":"10.3989/chdj.2021.019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2021.019","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the frontier line(s) of Brazil proposed by the Portuguese ambassadors (D. Vicente de Sousa Coutinho, D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, and Luís de Sousa Coutinho, the Viscount of Balsemão), drawn on maps and documents sent to Abbé Raynal when he was preparing the 1780 edition of his famous Histoire des Deux Indes. This was accompanied by an Atlas de Toutes les Parties Connues du Globe Terrestre, produced by the French geographer Rigobert Bonne. The objective is, in light of the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso, to compare the lines defended by the ambassadors and those which Raynal and Bonne drew on the map of South America in the Atlas, analyzing the geopolitical impacts.","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43806344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New Spain’s Cartography within Global Geography: José Antonio de Alzate’s Maps of North America","authors":"José María García Redondo","doi":"10.3989/CHDJ.2021.018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/CHDJ.2021.018","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46021638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Cartographer Sets Sail: Eyewitness Records and Early Modern Maps","authors":"C. V. Duzer","doi":"10.3989/CHDJ.2021.016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/CHDJ.2021.016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42853761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Louisiana and Florida territories sat at the intersection of empires in the late eighteenth century. Between 1750 and 1820 the area was controlled by the French and Spanish empires, the emerging United States of America, as well as the Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations. While political surveys produced images of the moving borders between sovereign powers, cadastral surveys show the constancy of local landowners. Landowners superseded national distinction and were a constant in an area in the midst of great change. As control of the region shifted, landowning families continued their way of life. The continued circulation of Spanish cadastral surveys after the transfer of the region to the United States of America shows how Spanish spatial representations of property ownership shaped the image of the Lower Mississippi Valley.
{"title":"Personal Empires: Mapping, Local Networks, and the Control of Land in the Lower Mississippi Valley","authors":"Matthew E. Franco","doi":"10.3989/chdj.2021.021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2021.021","url":null,"abstract":"The Louisiana and Florida territories sat at the intersection of empires in the late eighteenth century. Between 1750 and 1820 the area was controlled by the French and Spanish empires, the emerging United States of America, as well as the Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations. While political surveys produced images of the moving borders between sovereign powers, cadastral surveys show the constancy of local landowners. Landowners superseded national distinction and were a constant in an area in the midst of great change. As control of the region shifted, landowning families continued their way of life. The continued circulation of Spanish cadastral surveys after the transfer of the region to the United States of America shows how Spanish spatial representations of property ownership shaped the image of the Lower Mississippi Valley.","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45949338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erica Torrens Rojas, Juan Manuel Rodríguez Caso, A. B. Barahona Echeverría
This manuscript presents the genesis and development of the so-called “Mexican socialist” school system of the 1930s, whose leading stakeholder was President Lázaro Cárdenas. At the beginning of the socialist project, Mexico underwent the most politicized and controversial education reform in its modern history. Much has been said about this ambitious project of social change. However, a thorough exam is still needed, especially on how socialist values were globalized and appropriated in the Mexican scenario regarding the new State project of basic education. In this sense we are interested in how science was portrayed in Natural Sciences textbooks, especially focusing in biological evolution.
{"title":"The teaching of biological evolution in Mexican socialist textbooks in the 1930s","authors":"Erica Torrens Rojas, Juan Manuel Rodríguez Caso, A. B. Barahona Echeverría","doi":"10.3989/chdj.2021.022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2021.022","url":null,"abstract":"This manuscript presents the genesis and development of the so-called “Mexican socialist” school system of the 1930s, whose leading stakeholder was President Lázaro Cárdenas. At the beginning of the socialist project, Mexico underwent the most politicized and controversial education reform in its modern history. Much has been said about this ambitious project of social change. However, a thorough exam is still needed, especially on how socialist values were globalized and appropriated in the Mexican scenario regarding the new State project of basic education. In this sense we are interested in how science was portrayed in Natural Sciences textbooks, especially focusing in biological evolution.","PeriodicalId":51942,"journal":{"name":"Culture & History Digital Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43833242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}