Overcoming Ptolemy : the revelation of an Asian world region
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Overcoming Ptolemy : the revelation of an Asian world region
(AsiaWorld / series editor, Mark Selden)
Lexington Books, c2018
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p.249-269
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Studies on global metageography are enjoying a revival, and in no way is this better referenced than against the geo-world system bequeathed by Claudius Ptolemy almost two thousand years ago. This is all the more important when we consider the longevity of the Ptolemaic construct through and beyond the European age of discovery allowing as well for its eventual revision or refinement. Innovations in navigational science, cartographic representations, and textual description are all called upon to illustrate this theme. With its focus upon the macro-region termed India Extra Gangem, literally the space between India and China, the book unfolds a fourfold agenda. First, it explains the Ptolemaic world system back to classical points of reference as well as to its reception in late medieval Europe from Arabic sources. Second, it tracks the erosion of the Ptolemaic template especially in the light of new empirical data entering Europe from early travel accounts as well as the first voyages of discovery. Third, through selected examples, as with India, Southeast Asia, and China, it seeks to expose textual and cartographic adjustments to the classical models flowing from the scientific revolution. Fourth, through an examination of Jesuit astronomical observations conducted at various points in Asia, it demonstrates how Eurasia was actually measured and sized with respect to its true longitudinal coordinates such had deluded Columbus and even succeeding generations. In short, this work problematizes the creation of geographical knowledge, raises awareness as to the making of region in Asia over long historical time-the Ptolemaic world-in-motion-and, as a more latent agenda, sounds an alert as to the perils of overdetermination in the setting of modern boundaries whether upon land or sea.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Classical View of the Afro-Eurasian World
2. The Islamic Crossover
3. Ptolemaic Revival and Cartographic Adjustments in a Transitional Age
4. Revisions to the Ptolemaic Template in the Age of Discovery (1300-1500s)
5. The European Discoveries and the Print Revolution Reprised (1500-1700)
6. The Ptolemaic World-in-Motion: Enlightenment Science and the Jesuit Advance on China
7. The European Framing of Ptolemy's India Extra Gangem
8. Reimagining Ptolemy's Sinus Magnus and the Historical Geography of the China Seas
Conclusion: Conclusion: Post-Ptolemaic Constructions of Empire and Nation-State
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