Jerry Brotton

Throughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world, and our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, maps of the world are unavoidably ideological and subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power and authority of particular times and places. Mapmakers do not simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age. In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton examines the significance of 12 maps - from the almost mystical representations of ancient history to the satellite-derived imagery of today. He vividly recreates the environments and circumstances in which each of the maps was made, showing how each conveys a highly individual view of the world. Brotton shows how each of his maps both influenced and reflected contemporary events and how, by reading it, we can better understand the worlds that produced it. Although the way we map our surroundings is changing, Brotton argues that maps today are no more definitive or objective than they have ever been, but that they continue to define, shape and recreate the world. Readers of this book will never look at a map in quite the same way again.

Un seul monde, une seule Histoire.Depuis deux siècles, lhistoire du monde a été racontée dun seul point de vue, celui de lOccident, de la supériorité de sa civilisation, de luniversalité de ses idées

A sparkling exploration of direction by the acclaimed author of A History of the World in 12 Maps North south east and west almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves to understand who they are by projecting where they are For millennia these four directions have been foundational to our travel navigation and exploration and are central to the imaginative moral and political geography of virtually every culture in the world Yet they are far more subjective and various a sometimes contradictory a than we might realize The Four Points of the Compass takes the reader on a journey of directional discovery Jerry Brotton reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps why the early Islam revered the south why the Aztecs used five colour coded cardinal directions and why no societies primitive or modern have ever orientated themselves westwards He ends by reflecting on our digital age in which we the little blue dot on the screen have become the most important compass point Throughout Brotton shows that the directions reflect a human desire to create order and that they only have meaning literally and metaphorically depending on where you stand

A sparkling exploration of direction by the acclaimed author of A History of the World in 12 MapsNorth south east and west almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves to understand who they are by projecting where they are For millennia these four directions have been foundational to our travel navigation and exploration and are central to the imaginative moral and political geography of virtually every culture in the world Yet they are far more subjective and various sometimes contradictory than we might realize The Four Points of the Compass takes the reader on a journey of directional discovery Jerry Brotton reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps why the early Islam revered the south why the Aztecs used five colour coded cardinal directions and why no societies primitive or modern have ever orientated themselves westwards He ends by reflecting on our digital age in which we the little blue dot on the screen have become the most important compass point Throughout Brotton shows that the directions reflect a human desire to create order and that they only have meaning literally and metaphorically depending on where you stand

Le nord, le sud, l’est et l’ouest : toutes les sociétés, ou presque, recourent aux directions cardinales pour s’orienter. Depuis des millénaires, les quatre points cardinaux sont indispensables à la

Set against the backdrop of war, revolution, and regicide, and moving from London to Venice, Mantua, Madrid, Paris and the Low Countries, Jerry Brottons colourful and critically acclaimed book, The Sale of the Late Kings Goods, explores the formation and dispersal of King Charles Is art collection. Following a remarkable and unprecedented Parliamentary Act for The sale of the late kings goods, Cromwells republican regime sold off nearly 2,000 paintings, tapestries, statues and drawings in an attempt to settle the dead kings enormous debts and raise money for the Commonwealths military forces. Brotton recreates the extraordinary circumstances of this sale, in which for the first time ordinary working people were able to handle and own works by the great masters. He also examines the abiding relationship between art and power, revealing how the current Royal Collection emerged from this turbulent period, and paints its own vivid and dramatic picture of one of the greatest lost collections in English history.

In 1570, when it became clear she would never be gathered into the Catholic fold, Elizabeth I was excommunicated by the Pope. On the principle that my enemys enemy is my friend, this marked the beginning of an extraordinary English alignment with the Muslim powers who were fighting Catholic Spain in the Mediterranean, and of cultural, economic and political exchanges with the Islamic world of a depth not experienced again until the modern age. England signed treaties with the Ottoman Porte, received ambassadors from the kings of Morocco and shipped munitions to Marrakesh. By the late 1580s hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Elizabethan merchants, diplomats, sailors, artisans and privateers were plying their trade from Morocco to Persia.They included the resourceful mercer Anthony Jenkinson who met both Suleyman the Magnificent and the Persian Shah Tahmasp in the 1560s, William Harborne, the Norfolk merchant who became the first English ambassador to the Ottoman court in 1582 and the adventurer Sir Anthony Sherley, who spent much of 1600 at the court of Shah Abbas the Great. The previous year, remarkably, Elizabeth sent the Lancastrian blacksmith Thomas Dallam to the Ottoman capital to play his clockwork organ in front of Sultan Mehmed. The awareness of Islam which these Englishmen brought home found its way into many of the great cultural productions of the day, including most famously Marlowes Tamburlaine, and Shakespeares Titus Andronicus and The Merchant of Venice. The year after Dallams expedition the Moroccan ambassador, Abd al-Wahid bin Mohammed al-Annuri, spent six months in London with his entourage. Shakespeare probably began to write Othello six months later.This Orient Isle shows that Englands relations with the Muslim world were far more extensive, and often more amicable, than we have appreciated, and that their influence was felt across the political, commercial and domestic landscape of Elizabethan England. It is a startlingly unfamiliar picture of part of our national and international history.

Fascinating, panoramic, wonderful Tom HollandA magical book which explores how the world was seen at twelve points in history, through twelve extraordinary maps and the minds of those who made themWhat you see depends on where - and when - you are looking from. As Jerry Brottons enthralling book shows, maps have shaped our view of the world throughout history, and are themselves shaped by the ideas, prejudices, systems of power and creativity of their age. Brotton examines twelve world maps from global history - from the mystical representations of ancient civilizations and the fourteenth-century Mappamundi to the satellite-derived imagery of today - to show how, by reading them, we can better understand the worlds that produced them. You will not look at a map in quite the same way again.The intellectual background to these images is conveyed with beguiling erudition ... maps prove to be less conveyors of information than theatrical performances ... There is nothing more subversive than a map Andrew Linklater, SpectatorFascinating and thought-provoking ... An achievement of evocation Anthony Sattin, Literary ReviewElegant, powerfully argued David Horspool, Guardian, Books of the YearRich and adventurous John Carey, Sunday TimesA highly rewarding study ... you will emerge with a detailed insight into how maps reflect, expose and manipulate the societies in which they are made Simon Garfield, Mail on Sunday

Un seul monde, une seule Histoire.Depuis deux siècles, lhistoire du monde a été racontée dun seul point de vue, celui de lOccident, de la supériorité de sa civilisation, de luniversalité de ses idées

A sparkling exploration of direction, by the acclaimed author of A History of the World in 12 MapsNorth, south, east and west: almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves, to understand who they are by projecting where they are. For millennia, these four directions have been foundational to our travel, navigation and exploration and are central to the imaginative, moral and political geography of virtually every culture in the world. Yet they are far more subjective and various sometimes contradictory than we might realize.The Four Points of the Compass takes the reader on a journey of directional discovery. Jerry Brotton reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east; why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps; why the early Islam revered the south; why the Aztecs used five colour-coded cardinal directions; and why no societies, primitive or modern, have ever orientated themselves westwards. He ends by reflecting on our digital age in which we, the little blue dot on the screen, have become the most important compass point. Throughout, Brotton shows that the directions reflect a human desire to create order and that they only have meaning, literally and metaphorically, depending on where you stand.

Un recorrido por la historia a partir de doce mapas fundamentales.Desde la Antigüedad, los mapas han sido fundamentales a la hora de conformar nuestra visión del mundo y nuestro lugar en él. Pero lej

El Renacimiento fue uno de los momentos culminantes de la historia universal. En esa época Oriente y Occidente empezaron a darse cuenta de sus semejanzas, tanto en el ámbito político como en el cultural. En este amplio estudio, Jerry Brottons sostiene que entre 1400 y 1600 Europa se definio a si misma gracias al comercio y a la competencia con sus vecinos islamicos, africanos y asiaticos. La obra nos cuenta la historia de este intenso intercambio de ideas, objetos y tecnicas que configuraron el Renacimiento europeo. Tambien nos muestra la estrecha vinculacion existente entre los progresos tecnologicos y comerciales -como la imprenta, la banca o los avances cartograficos- y las grandes obras del arte, la literatura, la ciencia y los descubrimientos que caracterizaron este periodo. Este apasionante e innovador enfoque nos describe el Renacimiento como un fenomeno global cuyo influjo se hizo sentir en Oriente, Africa y las Americas, aunque a su vez nos dejo un triste legado de esclavitud, colonizacion e intolerancia religiosa cuya huella aun pervive en el mundo contemporaneo. Se trata, en suma, de un texto actual y polemico que desmitifica la idea segun la cual el Renacimiento es la epoca en la que se fraguo la superioridad de la cultura occidental.

Un recorrido por la historia a partir de doce mapas fundamentales. Desde la Antigüedad, los mapas han sido fundamentales a la hora de conformar nuestra visión del mundo y nuestro lugar en él. Pero le