Climate and Environmental History Sem. & Early Modern Sem: Charlotta Forss (Södertörn University)

"North of the map: cartography and the image of the far north through history"

Seminar

Date:

Wednesday 5 November 2025

Time:

15.00 – 17.00

Location:

Department of History, room D837 and on Zoom

This seminar is a collaboration with the Early Modern Seminar.

Abstract

This seminar explores how “the north” was conceptualized in early modern maps, and takes this discussion as a starting point for considering knowledge making, conceptualization and climate historically. Maps have played a central role in our understanding of what and where “the north” is. At the same time, the northernmost reaches of our world have, for much of history, been difficult to navigate and information hard to verify, and not least so due to harsh climatological and environmental conditions. For early modern mapmakers, this conundrum led to inventive mapping strategies, but also to ongoing struggles to define what constituted believable cartographic information.

While parts of this history have parallels in parts of the world, a set of specific features makes the north worthy of particular attention. Not least, early modern maps of the far north highlight not only to how climatological features shaped knowledge making, but equally, how conceptions about climate have been central for how a place – the north – has been conceptualized historically. In an age of changing climate, we would do well to remember that the north is not inherently cold.