The John Carter Brown Library Agnese Atlas
Résumé
About eighty manuscript atlases made by the prolific sixteenth-century Italian cartographer Battista Agnese survive. However, none of these manuscripts carries such an extensive decorative program as the John Carter Brown Library’s example.
Probably destined as a gift to Philip II of Spain, the Atlas’ borders weave a subtle discourse. Enveloping the known and discovered new worlds in ornate frames, the Atlas encourages a global, geopolitical, and aesthetic perspective on Charles V’s son and heir.
This talk will explore the maps’ unique and intriguing decorative discourse as well as its commission context.