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The present paper picks up a theme explored more fully in the context of the ideological
dimensions of cartography.' It is concerned with the dialogue that arises from the intentional or
unintentional suppression of knowledge in maps. It is based on a theory of cartographic silence.
My reading of the map is not a technical one (this already has a voluminous literature) but a
political one. The aim in this paper is to probe those silences which arise from deliberate
policies of secrecy and censorship and to examine the more indeterminate silences rooted in
often hidden procedures or rules. These rules, it can be argued, are a sort of subconscious
mentalite that mediates the knowledge contained in maps in order to maintain the political status
quo and the power of the state. Although much of what is said here applies to all periods,
including the present,2 the focus is on early modern Europe. Maps from the sixteenth century
onwards offer particularly clear opportunities for the exploration of a new perspective on the
changing and reciprocal relationships between the rise of the nation state and the expansion of
cartography.3 The establishment of stability and durability, the primary tasks of each and
every nation state,4 in early modern Europe as at other times, provides the background to this
essay. In outlining, first, the theoretical framework, it will be argued that cartography was
primarily a form of political discourse5 concerned with the acquistion and maintenance of
power. Examples drawn from the maps themselves will then be used in support of this
argument. |
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