The Idea of Europe

FROM CHRISTENDOM TO EUROPE

  • As early as 1471, the astronomer Johannes Müller (Regiomontanus) praised Nuremberg as "the middle point of Europe." In the seventeenth century, Francis Bacon referred to "we Europeans." His England was involved in the "affairs of Europe."
  • How do we explain the transition from Christendom to Europe?

    CARTOGRAPHY

  • medieval maps; early modern maps.
  • See Map of the World (1534-1536) by Oronce Fine (1494-1555). In Creating French Culture: The Path to Royal Absolutism, we read: "Oronce Fine was one of the rare French geographers in the Renaissance to prepare maps of the world. This map is bordered with a handsome Renaissance decoration: two columns support a pediment bearing a Latin inscription signifying 'A new and complete description of the world,' interrupted in the middle by a coat of arms of France. Also to be noted is a vast southern land mass (Terra Australis), recently discovered but not yet explored" (http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/bnf/bnf0004.html).
  • See also Matteo Ricci's map of the world. Ricci was a Jesuit missionary to China. His map went through several versions between 1574 and 1603. Guilio Aleni had this abridgement of Ricci's map printed in the 1620s.
  • the map of Martin Waldseemüller (1511)
  • European Age of Discovery; comparison and contrast with other civilizations
  • Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
  • Lodovico Guicciardini, Commentary on the most Notable Events in Europe(1565)
  • Pier Franceso Guambullari, History of Europe (1566)
  • Alfonso Ulloa, The History of Europe (1570)

    DIVERSITY AND DIVISION

  • chorography, chorographers; Johann Cuspinian, Description of the Territory of Austria (1553)
  • The civic pride of the chorographers was reflected in townscapes or cityscapes which tended to be woodcuts or engravings. The first detailed representation of a city was of Antwerp (1515). See Ugo Pinard, Speculum Romanae magnificentiae (1555), a large, detailed plan of Rome.
  • One writer noted that at Cannstadt, a small town near Stuttgart, "every year they have a feast called The Day of the Homely; whoever is judged the ugliest man wins a new suit...and the ugliest of the women wins a girdle, a pair of gloves and other things."
  • stereotypes; Carlos García, The Antipathy between the Spanish and French Peoples (1617).
  • Italian art theorist Giavoanni Paolo Lormazzo
  • war; religion; Sebastian Franck: "Behold now how many beliefs, sects and parties exist only among those who are Christians" (1530).
  • population increase: ca. 60,000,000 (1500) and ca. 80,000,000 (1600); Europeans on the move.
  • porous borders; Matthias Quadt, Atlas of Europe (1604)