Course Length: 30 hours
Course Week: 1–6 June 2025
Format: in person, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA
Fee: $1,495

Materiality is the foundation for the productive study of all aspects of maps and mapping, from the bibliographic to the interpretive to the digital. This course considers the widely variable material conditions of early maps to offer a new introduction to map history that counters the restrictive and flawed teleology inherent to “the history of cartography” or “historical cartography.” It does not presume any prior knowledge of maps and mapping and is suitable for graduate students and established scholars—including librarians, dealers, and collectors—seeking to undertake scholarship in map history.

The material conditions to be considered include: the representational strategies variously deployed in mapping (notably graphics, words, numbers, and performance); the processes of manuscript reproduction and of printing (woodblock, copperplate, lithography, cerography, &c.); physical situations (in books and on walls; atlases and separates); the social mechanisms of map circulation (marketplace, private distribution, public sphere); and the appreciation of material conditions within digital environments.

Patterns in the material conditions of maps form the basis for distinguishing the broad arenas (modes) and more particular discourses within which people have produced, circulated, and consumed information about the world. The differences between modes are hinted at by everyday English terms: map (world and regional mapping), chart (marine mapping), and plan (maps of places and territory). Map history is thus the history of the changes within and interactions between these modes. While the course addresses the changing constitutions of the primary mapping modes within the early modern and modern West, its principles are equally applicable to non-Western mapping.

Onsite analysis of materials will be extensively augmented by online imagery; while it is not necessary to bring a laptop into the classroom, students might wish to do so. In their personal statement, applicants are encouraged to describe the nature of their developing interest in map history and (if relevant) explain briefly the causes of this interest and the purposes to which they propose to put the knowledge gained from the course.