Catalonia, 1600
The existence of a quite remarkable wall map of Catalonia, of which only one copy survives, came to light a few decades ago. The map was printed in Antwerp, on six sheets, by J. B. Vrients (1552-1612), but it bears neither a date nor the mapmaker’s name. This extraordinary geographical feat went largely unnoticed by both historians and archivists; in its day, it seems that the map was not greatly admired, since there are few mentions of its existence. However, it constitutes the first cartographic image of Catalonia and was the inspiration for a territorial conception which, since the dawn of the seventeenth century, began to be propagated and respond to the geographical imagination of European society. The map presents an image that combines rich iconographic rhetoric with an exuberant repertory of spatial information. Little is known of the circumstances surrounding its gestation and public distribution or of the interests, ideas and figures involved in its conception, drawing and publication, with the exception, in the final stage, of the deputies holding office in the Catalan Parliament between 1602 and 1605. Here we have evidence of an early, audacious project of the political appropriation of geographical vision and sensibility aimed at promoting the visualisation of territorial information; proving itself to be a useful tool for matters of government; and proclaiming, in a most persuasive manner, the pride felt for a sovereignty and identity.
