Event—Colloquium

Colloquium: Mapping Desire and Conquest: Dudley’s Atlas and Medici Colonial Aspirations

—with Lia Markey (Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies) and Niccolò Moronato (Artist)

Detail from Robert Dudley, Arcano del mare, 1646-1647, VAULT Ayer 135.D8 1646

Art historian Lia Markey and artist Niccolò Moronato will discuss one of the Newberry’s treasures from the early modern period, Robert Dudley’s Arcano del Mare (Secrets of the Sea) (1646-1647). Produced in Medici Florence by an English cartographer and ship builder, the enormous three-volume sea atlas documents Medici attempted incursions in South America and reveals the ambitions of a dynasty in decline. This colloquium will present a journey across the historical and the contemporary, reflecting on the role of early modern cartography in changing the perspectives and mindsets of European rulers.

*Co-sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago