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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 1199: Keynote Lecture 2020: Grenzräume - Medieval Maps and the Perception of Border Zones and Boundaries (Language: English)

Wednesday 8 July 2020, 13.15-14.00

Speaker:Ingrid Baumgärtner, Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Universität Kassel
Abstract

Between 1300 and 1600 the perception and presentation of frontiers underwent a profound change. This can be observed in maps of the world as well as in regional maps, where borders became an element in recording territory, developing land, and marking rights and possession. This lecture aims to retrace how contemporary cartographers appropriated 'the border' as a phenomenon and depicted their conception. On the basis of carefully chosen case studies it has to be considered how map makers integrated knowledge about border zones, boundaries, and borders into the geographic representation, how they marked physically and geographically or socially-defined spaces, and which textual and visual strategies they applied to do so. Under scrutiny are the development, practice, and reception of cartographic borders as well as the intentions of the selected maps, since contemporary witnesses were well aware of the fact that those illustrations supported or rebutted certain claims and, thus, generated a relationally defined spatial reality.

Please note that admission to this event will be on a first-come, first-served basis as there will be no tickets. Please ensure that you arrive as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

Speaker: Ingrid Baumgärtner, Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Universität Kassel
Introduction: Nora Berend, Faculty of History / St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge