070306 SE BA-Seminar-Visualising rule and space. Maps and cartographic representations of the modern era (2025S)

In the modern era, rule and authority were visualised primarily through ceremonial and architecture, but also through cartography. Cartography in the Holy Roman Empire experienced a significant upswing, especially with late medieval Nuremberg and its good relations with Portuguese shipping. New techniques of geodesy (using angle measurements), distance measurement using hodometers and the development of trigonometry significantly improved land surveying and created ever more accurate maps. Maps reflect political, social and cultural circumstances, for example the famous map of Rome by Erhard Etzlaub (1460-1532) or the world map by Martin Waldseemüller (1507) or - far from it - the current representation of the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is shown to Indian users by Google maps as part of India.
The seminar will introduce the participants to maps as a commercial (and sometimes private, hand-drawn) media product, the locations and positions of maps (for example in the map gallery of the Salzburg Residence) will be discussed, but also the various clients (such as the Lower Austrian estates) will be presented. The techniques of map production will be analysed, as well as the distribution channels (e.g. the creation of map publishers such as the Homännische Landkartenoffizin, Justus Perthes-Verlag). Also important are the various motivations of those who commissioned maps (such as the city authorities, the estates, the military, the modern state), and sometimes events of the time are the reasons for the production of maps and bird's-eye views (such as the Meldeman Plan of 1530). The maps do not always reflect reality, but often illustrate wishful thinking - behind the superficial accuracy of the maps lies political intent (including school maps).
Various types of maps will be worked on in the Bachelor's seminar, based on concrete examples: Representations of countries and cities, portulans, cadastres, world maps, castle keep, sky, river and post maps, ocular maps, but also political maps of various kinds (such as the European city atlas). Important for the seminar is the co-operation with the map collection of the Lower Austrian Provincial Library, where the cartographic basis of this seminar is located. The seminar takes place partly in blocks at the Lower Austrian State Library.