Weird and Wonderful: Exploring the Outliers of Renaissance Cartography, session at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, March 30–April 1, 2017

An examination of the outliers of any category is valuable in testing the adequacy of definitions and exploring the limits of knowledge. This panel seeks to interrogate the production and depiction of space and to diversify our understanding of the different forms this took between 1300 and 1650. Papers are welcomed on Western manuscript or printed maps that incorporate material from non-Western cultures, that show the world from unusual perspectives or in unusual projections, that incorporate non-standard geography, and that have atypical iconographic programs or other features that set them apart from their peers. What do these strange maps teach us about mapping? Discussion is also encouraged of the maps’ socio-cultural functions, and how maps show connections between different global knowledge cultures.