This book focuses on the work of the great sixteenth-century traveller and map-maker Andre Thevat and explores the interrelations between representation and power in the age of discovery.

Frank Lestringant is a leading authority of humanism and on the age of discovery. His previous books include André Thevet, Cosmographe des Derniers Valois (Droz, 1991) and Le Huguenot et le Sauvage (Klincksieck, 1990).

Translator's Preface.

Introduction: Renaissance and Cosmography.

1. The Cosmographical Model.

2. Ancient Lessons: A Bookish Orient.

3. Mythologics: The Invention of Brazil.

4. Mythologics II: Amazons and Monarchs.

5. Cartographics: An Experience of the World and an Experiment on the World.

Epilogue: The End of Cosmography.

Appendices.

Notes.

Index.