Sandars Lectures 2007

Sarah Tyacke, CB

Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow, Royal Holloway

Distinguished Senior Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London

The three lectures will be given on Monday 5 March, Tuesday 6 March and Thursday 8 March, 2007 at 5pm in Cambridge University Library.

Lecture 1: Monday 5 March
'Then and now' – recent views of mapping in the early modern period
Will be about the history of cartography in the 20th century as it applies to the early modern European expansion or cultural encounter with other places and people in the world, reflecting upon contemporaries' use of maps and charts and our subsequent historical constructions borne of national and other pre-conceptions and theories. There are other such artefactual or cultural histories like the history of the book which exhibit similar and different pre-occupations.
This is the essential 'conversation' between the past and the present and colours the other two lectures.

Lecture 2: Tuesday 6 March
'Geography is better than divinity' – the practitioners' story
This lecture will address what the 'practitioners' in E.G.R. Taylor's phrase thought they were doing in making maps and charts of the world. Were they just getting from A to B? How they actually did it showing particular examples. What were the connections between the travel and exploratory and promotional literature of the time and the graphic material which survives? What is lost and does it matter? Were there distinctive 'schools' of manuscript cartography and how did the transmission of information take place?
This is the second conversation and reflects on of the 'conversations' and practices of varying sorts amongst contemporary (and sometimes later) professionals themselves and what we can actually know about these.

Lecture 3: Thursday 8 March
'There are maps and there are maps' – motives, markets and users
Will deal with the 'causes' of cartographic activity and progression or lack of it. Was it linear, self-reflective, speculative, or rather dependent upon other factors like war, trade and religious, territorial and political competition or fashion and public interest for its rates of activity, and visual and technical characteristics? Was what was known, for example, lost and then re-discovered later on? Again what was the relationship of the manuscript chart and map to the printed and published in the early modern period?
This is the third conversation and relates to the changing picture of the world over time from the perspectives of the early modern European protagonists and what if any relationship it had to the places and people they met and to their changing audiences: a never ending conversation!

All the primary cartographical evidence that will be cited will be from the period 1480 - 1750 approx.

POSTER / LEAFLET FOR PRINTING
MS Word
PDF File

About the Lecturer:

Sarah Tyacke, CB, FSA, FRhistS, Hon D PHiL, is the former Chief Executive of the National Archives and was previously Director of Special Collections at the British Library, and long-time Assistant Keeper in the Map Library there. She is now a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow researching in the History of Cartography based at Royal Holloway, and a Distinguished Senior Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. See also www.sarahtyacke.com for further information on her career and present work in archives as well as cartography.


Venue:

Morison Room, Cambridge University Library, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR

Click here for a map showing location of the University Library. On entering the Library's Entrance Hall turn right and walk through the Exhibition Centre - the Morison Room at the far end.


For more Information:

Contact:

Anne Taylor
Map Department
Cambridge University Library
West Road
Cambridge
CB3 9DR

Tel: 01223-333041
Fax: 01223-333160
email: maps@lib.cam.ac.uk

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