Marking time
Time in Maps
From the Age of Discovery to Our Digital Era
Kären Wigen & Caroline Winterer eds
University of Chicago Press 2020
Hb, 231pp, £34, ISBN 9780226178590
Although we tend to think of maps as a way of representing space, we actually use them for much more, including the depiction of time. In Time in Maps, Kären Wigen and Caroline Winterer collect nine papers that look at different ways in which cartographers and others have tried to use maps to depict history and prehistory.
In the book’s first section William I Ranking argues that modern maps can represent change over time effectively. The next two papers focus on maps from early modern Asia: Kären Wigen discusses the ways in which historical mapmaking in Japan played an important role in statecraft, as well as addressing local topics and addressing current events, while Richard A Pegg talks about the role of mapmaking concepts introduced into China by Jesuits in the 16th century. The indirect influence of these Jesuit maps can be seen in maps from the Qing dynasty of the 18th century; via Qing influence, these ideas also spread to Korea.
In the second section, Barbara E Mundy explores the historical maps of post-conquest Mexico; created by indigenous mapmakers, these maps recalled earlier constructs of time and space that focused on meaning, not topography. Veronica Della
