Charlotta Forss Charlotta Forss The Old, the New and the Unknown This thesis investigates early modern ways of looking at the world through an analysis of what the continents meant in three settings of knowledge making in seventeenth-century Sweden. Combining text, maps and images, the thesis anal- yses the meaning of the continents in, frst, early modern scholarly ‘geography’, second, accounts of journeys to the Ottoman Empire and, third, accounts of journeys to the colony New Sweden. The investigation explores how an under- standing of conceptual categories such as the continents was intertwined with processes of making and presenting knowledge. In this, the study combines ap- proaches from conceptual history with research on knowledge construction and circulation in the early modern world. The thesis shows how geographical frameworks shifted between settings. There was variation in what the continents meant and what roles they could fll. Rather THE than attribute this fexibility to random variation or mistakes, this thesis inter- The Old, the New and Unknown OLD prets fexibility as an integral part of how the world was conceptualized. Reli- gious themes, ideas about societal unities, defnitions of old, new and unknown knowledge, as well as practical considerations, were factors that in different way shaped what the continents meant. THE NEW A scheme of continents – usually consisting of the entities ‘Africa,’ ‘America,’ ‘Asia,’ ‘Europe’ and the polar regions – is a part of descriptions about what the world looks like today. In such descriptions, the continents are often treated as existing outside of history. However, like other concepts, the meaning and sig- nifcance of these concepts have changed drastically over time and between con- AND THE texts. This fact is a matter of importance for historians, but equally so for a UNKNOWN wider public using geographical categories to understand the world. Concepts such as the continents may describe what the world looks like, yet they can cre- ate both boundaries and affliations far beyond land and sea. Charlotta Forss is a historian at Stockholm University. The continents and the making of geographical This is her doctoral thesis. knowledge in seventeenth-century Sweden CHARLOTTA FORSS The Old, the New and the Unknown The continents and the making of geographical knowledge in seventeenth-century Sweden Charlotta Forss Academic dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at Stockholm University to be publicly defended on Saturday 3 March 2018 at 13.00 in De Geersalen, Geovetenskapens hus, Svante Arrhenius väg 14. Abstract This thesis investigates early modern ways of looking at the world through an analysis of what the continents meant in three settings of knowledge making in seventeenth-century Sweden. Combining text, maps and images, the thesis analyses the meaning of the continents in, first, early modern scholarly ‘geography’, second, accounts of journeys to the Ottoman Empire and, third, accounts of journeys to the colony New Sweden. The investigation explores how an understanding of conceptual categories such as the continents was interlinked with processes of making and legitimating knowledge. In this, the study combines approaches from conceptual history and research on the making of knowledge in the early modern world. The thesis shows how geographical frameworks shifted between settings. There was a flexibility in what the continents could mean, and in what themes these words were associated with. Rather than attribute this flexibility to random variation or mistakes, this thesis examines flexibility as an integral part of how the world was conceptualized. Religious themes, ideas about societal unities, definitions of old, new and unknown knowledge, as well as practical considerations, were factors that in different way shaped what the continents meant. A scheme of continents – usually consisting of the entities ‘Africa’, ‘America’, ‘Asia’, ‘Europe’ and sometimes the polar regions – is often a part of descriptions about what the world looks like. The continents are often treated as existing outside of history. However, like other concepts, the meaning and significance of the continents have changed drastically over time and between contexts. This fact is a matter of importance for historians, but equally so for a wider public using geographical categories to understand the world today. Concepts such as the continents may describe what the world looks like, yet they can create both boundaries and affiliations far beyond land and sea. Keywords: historical geography, Ottoman Empire, colonial America, conceptual history, history of knowledge, history of cartography, history of science, religious geography, early modern history, historisk geografi, kartografi, begreppshistoria, kunskapshistoria, Osmanska riket, vetenskapshistoria, religiös geografi, tidigmodern historia, det koloniala Amerika. Stockholm 2018 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-151709 ISBN 978-952-68929-0-0 Department of History Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm Te Old, the New and the Unknown Charlotta Forss Te Old, the New and the Unknown Te continents and the making of geographical knowledge in seventeenth-century Sweden Charlotta Forss Doctoral dissertation in History at Stockholm University, Sweden 2018 Iloinen tiede Turku, Finland 2018 Layout Panu Savolainen © Charlotta Forss Cover image: Detail from Anonymous, Quaestiones Astronomicae in Sphaeram Ioannis de Sacrobosco. Uppsala University Library A 25. Uppsala University Library, Uppsala. Oy Iloinen tiede Ab, Turku, Finland 2018 Libelli iucundi historicorum Holmiensium 2 Editors Charlotta Forss & Otso Kortekangas ISBN 978-952-68929-0-0 Printed at Universitetsservice US-AB, Stockholm, Sweden. To Annie Eriksson and Astrid Forss Contents Illustrations 10 Acknowledgements 13 1. Conceptualizing continents, making worlds 17 A study of the continents situated in time and space 20 At the intersection between scholarship and travel accounts 22 Seventeenth-century Sweden 24 Statement of purpose 27 2. Te interpretative framework 28 Te continents as objects of historical analysis 28 Performativity and situated conceptualization 31 In the making of geographical knowledge 33 Tree case studies 36 Comments on method 39 Te source material 44 Te source material for the three case studies 44 Maps, images and texts 48 Temporal distribution of the source material 50 Defnitions and limitations 52 Authors, mapmakers, travellers, biographers and readers 52 Te study of spatial constructs in history 52 Terminology and source languages 53 Te many guises of geography 54 Interpreting frequency 55 Research questions and outline of thesis 55 3. Te continents in scholarly geography 57 Te source material 59 Between Ptolemy and ‘discovery’ 61 Research questions and outline of chapter 64 Te practices of scholarly geography 65 Te vocabulary 73 Tree ways of defning a scheme of continents 77 Building on antiquity 77 Continuous land 78 Historical surveys 83 Epistemological assumptions in the descriptions of the continents 88 Water and land 88 What people, what states, what cities 91 Old and new geography 94 Religious geography 99 Discovered geography 104 Unknown geography 107 Scholarly geography, local and entangled 111 Conclusions 115 4. Te continents in accounts of journeys to the eastern Mediterranean 121 Te source material 123 Between the continents and Christendom 124 Research questions and outline of chapter 126 Te practices of travel and knowledge making 128 Te vocabulary 138 How were the continents used? 140 Organize, orient and exalt 140 Travelling across water and land 145 Religious geography and the borders of Christendom 149 Te Ottoman Empire in Europe, Asia and Africa 154 Europe and Asia in the Ottoman Empire 157 Europe and Christendom as society 162 Unity and discord in Christendom 165 Te absence of the ‘Old World’ and the presence of the ancients 170 Local and entangled: Travelling from Norden 172 Conclusions 174 5. Te continents in accounts of journeys to New Sweden 179 Te source material 181 Between the Old World and the New 184 Research questions and outline of chapter 186 Te practices of travel and knowledge making 188 Te vocabulary 199 How were the continents used? 200 Organize, orient and exalt 201 Argue 208 Identify 212 Te elusive West India 214 American and West Indian experiences 220 America: An entity and a discovery 223 Te New World and the Old 229 Crossing water: the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware River 231 Religious geography 235 Local and entangled: People from Norden 240 Conclusions 242 6. Conclusions 246 Te old, the new and the unknown 247 Concepts in three settings of knowledge making 248 What the continents meant 251 A return to concepts and terms 257 Conceptualization and the making of knowledge as analytical perspectives 258 An age-old question 259 Sammanfattning 261 Bibliography 268 Abbreviations 268 Primary sources 269 Archival sources 269 Printed sources 272 Secondary sources 277 Printed works 277 Online secondary sources 289 Appendixes 291 Appendix 1. Schemes of continents in geography teaching material 291 Appendix 2: Accounts of journeys to the eastern Mediterranean 297 Appendix 3. Accounts of journeys to New Sweden 300 Illustrations Figure 1. Johannes Rudbeckius, Tabulae duae, una geographica, altera chronologica (Västerås, 1643). Size of map: 25,5 x 36,7 cm. Uppsala University Library, Uppsala. Figure 2. Olof Rudbeck, ‘Tab. 36, Fig. 136’ in Tafor eller tabulae (Uppsala, 1679). Size: 49,5 x 60 cm. Uppsala