Stéréotypes culturels et transmission de la connaissance des îles de l’Atlantique : les archipels de Madère et des Canaries dans l’Insulaire de Benedetto Bordone
Cultural Stereotypes and Transmission of Knowledge of the Atlantic Islands: The Madeira and the Canaries Archipelagoes in Isolario by Benedetto Bordone

Summary/Abstract: Benedetto Bordone’s Isolario, written in 1534, is an ambitious work aiming to provide a comprehensive description of all existing islands. Although relatively understudied, it stands as a significant resource, not only for its contributions to cartography but also for the invaluable insights it offers into the cultural specifics of these territories in the sixteenth century. This contribution aims to highlight, on one hand, the cultural and identity specifics of two archipelagos that seem to exert a particular fascination on Bordone, perhaps due to their proximity to Europe: Madeira and the Canary Islands. Methodologically, our analysis will seek to address the following questions: What is the evolution that the Isolario represents, from a cultural perspective, in comparison to the medieval portolan? How is the description of the fundamentally wild nature of the Atlantic Islands approached? And finally, is it possible to domesticate these lands?

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