The imaginative landscape of Christopher Columbus / Valerie I.J. Flint.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Flint, Valerie I. J. (Valerie Irene Jane), 1936-2009, author.

Series:

Princeton Legacy Library ; 4849

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Geography--History.

Geography.

Cosmology, Medieval.

Columbus, Christopher--Knowledge and learning.

Columbus, Christopher.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (259 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, [New Jersey] : Princeton University Press, 1992.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Rather than focusing on the well-rehearsed facts of Columbus's achievements in the New World, Valerie Flint looks instead at his imaginative mental images, the powerful "fantasies" that gave energy to his endeavors in the Renaissance. With him on his voyages into the unknown, he carried medieval notions gleaned from a Mediterranean tradition of tall tales about the sea, from books he had read, and from the mappae-mundi, splendid schematic maps with fantastic inhabitants. After investigating these sources of Columbus's views, Flint explains how the content of his thinking influenced his reports on his discoveries. Finally, she argues that problems besetting his relationship with the confessional teaching of the late medieval church provided the crucial impelling force behind his entire enterprise. As Flint follows Columbus to the New World and back, she constantly relates his reports both to modern reconstructions of what he really saw and to the visual and literary sources he knew. She argues that he declined passively to accept authoritative pronouncements, but took an active part in debate, seeking to prove and disprove theses that he knew to be controversial among his contemporaries. Flint's efforts to take Columbus seriously are so convincing that his belief that he had approached the site of the earthly Paradise seems not quaint but eminently sensible on his own terms.Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: The Medieval Background

Chapter 1. "Mappemondes"

Chapter 2. Columbus's Known Reading

Chapter 3. Sea Stories

Part II: The Imprint on Columbus

Chapter 4. Marvels of the East

Chapter 5. The Terrestrial Paradise

Chapter 6. Columbus and His Christian World

Appendix

Bibliography of Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691629032

069162903X

9780691604664

0691604665

OCLC:

1016765086