RUcore: Rutgers University Community Repository
"Compendious extracts of strange and memorable things": sixteenth-century compilations and the new world
Descriptive
TitleInfo
(displayLabel = Citation Title);
(type = uniform)
Title
"Compendious extracts of strange and memorable things": sixteenth-century compilations and the new world
TitleInfo
(displayLabel = Other Title);
(type = alternative)
Title
Sixteenth-century compilations and the new world
Name
(ID = NAME001);
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Young
NamePart
(type = given)
Sandra M. (Sandra Michele)
DisplayForm
Sandra M. Young
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RUETD)
author
Name
(ID = NAME002);
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Jehlen
NamePart
(type = given)
Myra
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Myra Jehlen
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
chair
Name
(ID = NAME003);
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
McKeon
NamePart
(type = given)
Michael
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Michael McKeon
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name
(ID = NAME004);
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Warner
NamePart
(type = given)
Michael
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
Michael Warner
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name
(ID = NAME005);
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Schalkwyk
NamePart
(type = given)
David
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
DisplayForm
David Schalkwyk
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
outside member
Name
(ID = NAME006);
(type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name
(ID = NAME007);
(type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre
(authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated
(qualifier = exact)
2008
DateOther
(qualifier = exact);
(type = degree)
2008-01
Language
LanguageTerm
English
PhysicalDescription
Form
(authority = marcform)
electronic
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
vi, 245 pages
Abstract
The sixteenth-century compilation's encyclopaedic scope embraced widely diverse texts in accounting for the newly expanded world. I examine its representational methods for what they suggest of the period's habits of thought, and consider how these shape objects of knowledge. Michel Foucault's methodological tools facilitate a critique of epistemological constructions, but his characterizations of the sixteenth-century compilation as condemned "to never knowing anything but the same thing" do not adequately account for its contested meanings and shifts in form. I consider how Martin Waldseemüller deftly arranges disparate texts to authorize Vespucci's account of the New World and his map, announcing "America," managing the unsettling discrepancies between received knowledge and new ways of describing the world.
Compilations instructing in the "arte" of navigation (Taisnier, Cortés) invoke the mathematical number's abstractions in the face of shifting landscapes, demonstrating that "knowing" is caught up with "doing." I caution against reading backwards through imperial history, assuming epistemological certainties. In Sebastian Münster's Treatyse of the Newe India, the presence of human subjects troubles cosmographical certainties, while also providing objects of curiosity for natural history. The possibilities of knowing become both troubled and enabled through encounter, evident also in Cabot's instructions to explorers. I analyze relational terms (novel, ancient, strange, monstrous, "our," beastly, peculiar, gentle, humane, barbarous, infidel), as the basis of Europe's identifications. Richard Hakluyt's early compilations, Divers voyages and Principall Navigations, create the possibility of a nation-specific imperial identity, through the gathering of texts.
Close reading does not always bear out the rigidly temporal shifts identified by critics. While firsthand "experience" and "novelty" carry cachet, texts flaunting their novelty often echo existing texts. The ancients' authority remains an oft-cited method of authorizing disputed material, alongside methods considered new -- the mathematical number, instrumentation to measure the world, diagrammatic forms of representation (maps, astronomical charts) and narrative eye-witness accounts. The powerful critical methods of revisionist analysis warrant a recognition of the inevitably provisional nature of these abstractions and particularized investigations. Today as in the past, what we "know" to be "true" is a function of our institutional and political context. The coherence of our insights is always, inevitably, open to question.
Compilations instructing in the "arte" of navigation (Taisnier, Cortés) invoke the mathematical number's abstractions in the face of shifting landscapes, demonstrating that "knowing" is caught up with "doing." I caution against reading backwards through imperial history, assuming epistemological certainties. In Sebastian Münster's Treatyse of the Newe India, the presence of human subjects troubles cosmographical certainties, while also providing objects of curiosity for natural history. The possibilities of knowing become both troubled and enabled through encounter, evident also in Cabot's instructions to explorers. I analyze relational terms (novel, ancient, strange, monstrous, "our," beastly, peculiar, gentle, humane, barbarous, infidel), as the basis of Europe's identifications. Richard Hakluyt's early compilations, Divers voyages and Principall Navigations, create the possibility of a nation-specific imperial identity, through the gathering of texts.
Close reading does not always bear out the rigidly temporal shifts identified by critics. While firsthand "experience" and "novelty" carry cachet, texts flaunting their novelty often echo existing texts. The ancients' authority remains an oft-cited method of authorizing disputed material, alongside methods considered new -- the mathematical number, instrumentation to measure the world, diagrammatic forms of representation (maps, astronomical charts) and narrative eye-witness accounts. The powerful critical methods of revisionist analysis warrant a recognition of the inevitably provisional nature of these abstractions and particularized investigations. Today as in the past, what we "know" to be "true" is a function of our institutional and political context. The coherence of our insights is always, inevitably, open to question.
Note
(type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note
(type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 234-243).
Subject
(ID = SUBJ1);
(authority = RUETD)
Topic
Literatures in English
Subject
(ID = SUBJ2);
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Encyclopedias and dictionaries--16th century--History and criticism
RelatedItem
(type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier
(type = local)
rucore19991600001
Identifier
(type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.17238
Identifier
ETD_603
Location
PhysicalLocation
(authority = marcorg);
(displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
NjNbRU
Identifier
(type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T31C1X7W
Genre
(authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
Back to the top
Rights
RightsDeclaration
(AUTHORITY = GS);
(ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
AssociatedEntity
(AUTHORITY = rulib);
(ID = 1)
Name
Sandra Young
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
RightsEvent
(AUTHORITY = rulib);
(ID = 1)
Type
Permission or license
Detail
Non-exclusive ETD license
AssociatedObject
(AUTHORITY = rulib);
(ID = 1)
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Back to the top
Technical
Format
(TYPE = mime);
(VERSION = )
application/x-tar
FileSize
(UNIT = bytes)
1020928
Checksum
(METHOD = SHA1)
ec8e6c8aad8fbb23a7e2a37df458379f2c50b252
ContentModel
ETD
CompressionScheme
other
OperatingSystem
(VERSION = 5.1)
windows xp
Format
(TYPE = mime);
(VERSION = NULL)
application/x-tar
Back to the top
Statistical Profile