The Geographicall Compass”: History, Authority and Utility in the English Voyage Account, 1660-1730
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by D-Scholarship@Pitt “THE GEOGRAPHICALL COMPASS”: HISTORY, AUTHORITY AND UTILITY IN THE ENGLISH VOYAGE ACCOUNT, 1660-1730 by Jacob Pollock Bachelor of Arts, University of Auckland, 2002 Master of Arts, University of Auckland, 2005 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2012 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Jacob Pollock It was defended on February Nine, 2012 and approved by Seymour Drescher, University Professor, History Peter Machamer, Professor, History and Philosophy of Science John Twyning, Associate Professor, English Dissertation Advisors: Jonathan Scott, Professor, History Pinar M. Emiralioglu, Assistant Professor, History ii Copyright © by Jacob Pollock 2012 iii “THE GEOGRAPHICALL COMPASS”: HISTORY, AUTHORITY AND UTILITY IN THE ENGLISH VOYAGE ACCOUNT, 166O-1730 Jacob Pollock, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2012 The late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries saw a dramatic increase in the publication of accounts of voyages on the London book market. These publications ranged from brief extracts of romantic narratives involving shipwrecks in the East Indies to multi-volume compilations of voyages to all parts of the world, printed in folio and containing numerous maps and engravings. Existing scholarship often views such accounts as entertainment destined for a popular audience. This dissertation shows how the voyage account was used in multiple genres and multiple intellectual contexts, finding its way into debates about natural philosophy, religion, and history, and playing as important a role in the work of the Royal Society as it did in the literary practices of the period.
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