“Medieval & Early Modern Cartography: An Introduction”
Mediterranean Studies Summer Skills Seminar
21–24 July 2025 • Remote
The Summer Skills Seminar, “Medieval & Early Modern Cartography: An Introduction” will be held via Zoom from Monday, 21 July to Thursday, 24 July 2025 from 10am to noon and 1pm to 3pm MDT.
This Summer Skills Seminar provides participants with an overview of key concepts and methodologies in the study of Mediterranean and Early Modern cartography and the interpretation of maps. The course will address the themes of mobility, connectivity, and encounter in relation to the visual culture of peoples and territories across the sea. Participants will acquire an art historical tool kit to assist them in conducting their own research on the visual culture and artistic production of the medieval Mediterranean.
Course overview
Over the course of the Middle Ages, cartographic works came to play a significant role in Mediterranean visual culture. This Summer Skills course addresses the importance of maps in medieval and early modern society in terms of their production, function, display, and their contribution to a mapping mentality. In the course of four days we will study different types of maps from Islamic and Christian territories in relation to their form, content, function, and context. This course will not be addressing cartographic works in terms of their geographical accuracy or contribution to scientific knowledge; rather they will be assessed as material, visual, and aesthetic products and as repositories of a newly formulated system of signs that promoted novel ways of seeing. We will work here to integrate maps more fully into art historical discourses while analyzing them as ideological objects. Art historians have long acknowledged the non-transparent nature of visual imagery and the inquiry of cartographic works undertaken in this course will illuminate the great power that maps had for their producers and consumers.
Course sessions:
Day One will set the stage for an in-depth analysis of cartographic works by asking the question “What does it mean to make a map in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean?” The second topic of the day will be mappaemundi or world maps. These maps constitute some of the earliest cartographic works created in the Mediterranean in both Christian and Muslim traditions. Their close connection to religious communities (as both producers and consumers), spatio-temporal qualities, rich visual imagery, and their melding of religious content and geographical information made them powerful storytelling tools. We will conduct contextual analyses of a number of world maps to assess the cultural work that maps could perform for an array of patrons and audiences. The availability of digital reproductions of these complex maps will allow course participants to analyze the detailed textual and visual content presented in these cartographic works. We will study a number of world maps, including the Hereford Mappamundi, Fra Mauro’s Mappamundi, al-Idrisi’s map made for Roger II; the Gough map, the Ebstorf world map, and the Saint-Sever Beatus map.
Day Two will focus on a revolutionary new form of mapmaking created during a pivotal moment in the history of cartography: portolan charts and texts from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Previously mapping had existed almost exclusively in the religious domain but this time period saw the formulation of new cartographic representations that were completely secular in nature and practical in function, created to gauge distances and identify ports and landmarks, while elucidating social customs in foreign locales. We will assess the relationship between navigational charts and traditional world maps while exploring how portolans forged a distinctive visuality for a new audience of mariners and merchants. Some monuments addressed in this class session will include the Carte pisane, navigational charts made by Pietro Vesconte, Abraham Cresques, the Pizzigano family, Giovanni da Carignano, etc., the Liber de existencia riverarium, and the Compasso da navegare.
Day Three will introduce cartographic works that served novel functions in medieval and early modern society. By the fifteenth century, secular mapmaking traditions had become so embedded into cultural practices that they were designed for a broader clientele to serve a number of cultural and political purposes: luxury gifts, political statements, expressions of sovereignty, and displays of wealth and sophistication. We will highlight the transformation of maps into aesthetic objects of prestige that were displayed prominently in public settings. We will also look at highly politicized contexts for maps in which they lay claim to territory and visualize sovereignty in a competitive Mediterranean environment. Some works to be addressed on Day Three include Vesconte’s maps for Marin Sanudo’s Liber secretorum, maps by Opicinus de Canistris, atlases and luxury presentation maps, and painted wall maps for homes and palaces.
On Day Four we move from more monument-based topics to theoretical considerations of maps and mapmaking. We will approach the cartographic content addressed in the first three days in relation to various methodologies and new approaches to the study of cartography. How does the visual system of a map create a mapping mentality that defines how people perceive spaces, places, and things? How do maps create communities of inclusion and exclusion? How do maps mean differently depending upon one’s gender, ethnicity, occupation, and/or religious affiliation? What new approaches can scholars and students apply to the study of maps to tap their extraordinary cultural potential? We will end the course with a discussion of new directions in the study of cartography.
Past Participants of Prof. Mathews’ Introduction to Mediterranean Art said:
“I have found Professor Mathews's published research both inspiring and helpful in thinking about my own studies, and the insights and reflections she shared from her current research were very exciting and relevant to my own work.”
“Not only do I have readings (new to me) that I plan on integrating into my Medieval Mediterranean survey, but I also can imagine teaching one of the units on a "Mediterranean way of seeing."
“I learned to think about art in a deeper way. I plan to incorporate what I learned into my own courses by asking Mediterranean questions related to the art work that we study.”
“In just four days Professor Mathews covered a lot of ground and provided a rich syllabus; she took a collaborative approach and participants were able to add bibliographic sources to the drop box folder.”
“Wonderful course and professor. Left me wanting more!”
“This was an intense immersion in Mediterranean topics, with excellent readings and guided questions.”
“Karen was very skilled at turning comments and questions from the participants into teachable moments. The range and depth of her knowledge were easily apparent.”
“The professor was excellent. Karen Mathews was well-prepared and thoughtfully selected the readings and the material that was covered. She was attentive to every student in the course.”
Faculty
The course will be conducted by Prof. Karen Mathews (Department of Art and Art History, University of Miami). She received her B.A. in Art History from UCLA and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Chicago. She has received grants from the Graham Foundation, Kress Foundation, Program for Cultural Cooperation, and the American Research Center in Egypt in support of her research. She published Conflict, Commerce, and an Aesthetic of Appropriation in the Italian Maritime Cities, 1000-1150 (Brill) in 2017 and was lead editor for the volume A Companion to Medieval Pisa (Brill, 2022). Her numerous articles focus on various aspects of medieval Mediterranean visual culture, with a particular emphasis on artistic production in Spain, Italy, and Egypt. She has been conducting research on Mediterranean cartography since 2015 and recently published an article, “Mapping, Materiality, and Merchant Culture in Medieval Italy, 1150-1400,” (2022) that studies the relationship between cartography, architectural decoration, and new visual systems in the Italian maritime republics.
Application & Information
Recommended prerequisites: AP Art History courses or introductory surveys. Some upper division or graduate art history coursework is ideal but not required
Please note: sessions will not be recorded; synchronous attendance is required.
The regular application period is until April 28.
Applicants will be advised of acceptance by May 5. Payment is due on May 12. Applicants waiting on a grant or subvention may request an extension for the second payment.
Late applicants may be accommodated if space remains. Full payment will be due within three days of acceptance, including a $75 surcharge for late applications.
All payments are final and non-refundable. A letter of confirmation/ receipt will be provided by the Mediterranean Seminar, together with a certificate of completion once the course has concluded.r.
Apply via this form.
For further information or inquiries, contact mailbox@mediterraneanseminar.org subject: “Summer Skills Information”)
Fees
• $1100 for Full Professors, Librarians & Professionals
• $825 for tenured Associates, Emerita/us, Retired Faculty, Independent Scholars & Non-Academics;
• $575 for non-tenured Associates and Assistants, Postdoctoral Fellows & Graduate and Undergraduate students;
• $400 for Adjuncts, Lecturers & Contingent faculty.
Members of University of Colorado departments may be eligible for a discount. Limited reductions are offered to applicants who are (1) nationals; (2) current residents; (3) AND faculty or students in low-per-capita GDP countries may apply for a reduction (the Low-GDP Bursary program).
Payment information will be provided at the time of acceptance. Posted fees do not include a 5% processing fee.
All fees are non-refundable.
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Can I get a reduction in fees?
What is the low-GDP Bursary program?
Proposed Program
Monday, 21 July 2025: Introduction and Mappaemundi
10am—noon & 1—3pm
1. Introduction to cartographic visuality
2. Mappaemundi—Patrons, audiences, and storytelling potential
Tuesday, 22 July 2025: Portolan Charts and Text
10am—noon & 1—3pm
1. Secular mapmaking traditions—function and audience
2. Relationship of portolans to traditional world maps
Wednesday, 23 July 2025: Maps as Art and Novel Uses for Cartographic Works
10am—noon & 1—3pm
1. Shift from functional to aesthetic objects
2. Novel uses for navigational charts and world maps
Thursday, 24 July 2025: Cartography as a Visual System: Methdologies and New Directions
10am—noon & 1—3pm
1. Defining a new visual system in maps
2. New approaches to medieval and early modern cartography
Important dates:
Application period: 28 April 2025
Acceptance/stand by notifications: 5 May 2025
Full payment: 12 May 2025 (subject to extension for late applicants/ or pending grants)
NOTE: Numbers are limited; participants are encouraged to apply early.
Information
For general information regarding fees, enrollment, and administrative matters, contact the Mediterranean Seminar; for questions regarding seminar content and materials, contact the instructor directly.