Presentazione della Sessione 27 La Riforma luterana e la nuova Geografia / The Lutheran Reform and the New Geography / La reforma luterana y la nueva Geografía

The Lutheran Reform and the New Geography – Inspired by the idea of the theme chosen for this congress, that is the contribution of Geography between revolutions and reforms, and strictly referring to the five hundredth anniversary of the Lutheran Reform, the proposed session aims to reflect on the weight carried by the Protestant Reform in the evolution of thought and culture, in politics and religion and in the history of Geography and Cartography. Hereafter are some of the aspects that will be addressed. The Lutheran Reform has profoundly modified the motivations and the purposes of travel which, from experience of knowledge and exploration, have changed into colonization movements on a global scale. Simultaneously, also the travel report has changed: the perspective, the objectives and purposes that are at the origin of travels experiences have affected the main actors, the contents, the themes, the shapes (great literary collections of G.B. Ramusio and Richard Hakluyt), and the relationship between texts and iconography (Theodor de Bry, Giacomo Gastaldi). The opening of pelagic routes brought to the fore countries with different cultures than those of the Mediterranean ones, gradually moving the center of gravity of the travels, of the exchanges and of the flow of ideas towards Northern Europe, triggering a process of differentiation that found in religion a symbol around which to build new identity bonds. New trade routes were opened, products previously unknown were introduced, distant new worlds were known, new horizons and boundaries were drawn up. The Cartography has witnessed Flemish centers of production flourishing at the expense of the Mediterranean ones, the rise of new models of representation after the Ptolemaic ones (Ortelius, Mercator, etc.) and new forms of cartographic divulgation (Atlases). As a consequence, a process of secularization that showed also some important phenomena of iconoclasm was established. Therefore, we wish to reflect with this proposal on a reform which led to a slow revolution, obstructed but inexorable, which has imposed big newness among protagonists and themes of travel and travel literature, among new worlds and maps that represent them; a promoted new Geography, for example, from different buyers compared to the previous ones (rise of the bourgeoisie) that has imposed different contents and containers. KEYWORDS: lutheran reform-revolution; new geography; travels; cartography; travel report

Partendo dallo spunto offerto dal tema scelto per questo congresso, ossia l’apporto della Geografia fra rivoluzioni e riforme, e rifacendosi strettamente al cinquecentenario della Riforma luterana, questa sessione vuole riflettere sul peso avuto dalla Riforma protestante nell’evoluzione del pensiero e della cultura, nella politica e nella religione, nella storia della Geografia e della Cartografia. È evidente però – particolarmente per i geografi storici – che la Riforma fu solamente uno degli elementi che nel primo Cinquecento scossero l’Europa, e di conseguenza il resto del mondo, nel pieno di un’epoca che travalica il XVI secolo e che dal punto di vista della storia della geografia e della conoscenza del pianeta fu fondamentale, che inaugura anche terminologicamente l’inizio di un processo di differenziazione, di caratterizzazione, di specificazione di moltissimi aspetti della realtà di quel secolo ma non solo che – è questo il punto basilare – nella geografia e nei viaggi trovano la loro ragione.