Painting the Void: The Instrumentalization of Cartography in Neo-Confucian Chosŏn and Renaissance France through Landscape Painting and Perspective (15th-16th centuries)

Abstract

Maps derive value from the balance between the information their cartographers supply or subtract. When involuntary, absence of data is attributed to negligence or ignorance. When intentional, it tends to connote deceit. Previous studies praised the plethora of entries which points to scientific precocity in Yi Hoe’s (李薈, 1354-1409) P’altodo (八道圖, Map of the Eight Provinces, 1400) and Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chi to (混一 疆理歷代國都之圖, Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals, 1402) or Kangnido, and in Oronce Fine’s (1494-1555) Recens et integra orbis descriptio (1536) and Nova totius