The Furthest Shore
Images of Terra Australis from the Middle Ages to Captain Cook

This book traces the history of pictorial imagery associated with Terra Australis, showing the link between art and exploration.

William Eisler (Author)

9780521392686, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 June 1995

192 pages, 81 b/w illus. 15 colour illus.
27.9 x 21.6 x 1.3 cm, 0.78 kg

"For a variety of audiences, this will be an interesting book to read, as well as a beautiful volume to own." John T. McGrath, Sixteenth Century Journal

The unknown and mysterious Great Southland, or Terra Australis, captured the European imagination for centuries before it became a documented fact. This book traces the history of pictorial imagery associated with the 'Fifth Continent'. It discusses and presents imagery from all parts of the southern continent: Java, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, the South Pacific Islands and Tierra del Fuego as it evolved up to the Enlightenment. Many European explorers had a passionate interest in depicting the plants, animals and native inhabitants of the southern world. The images associated with the search for the southern continent - paintings, handcolored maps, drawings, tapestries and artefacts - are discussed in the context of the link between art and exploration. Beautifully illustrated with Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch and English images, this book is an exciting visual account of the construction of Terra Australis in the European imagination and as scientific fact.

List of illustrations
Introduction
Part I. The Invention of a Southern Continent: 1. Terra Australis in antiquity and the Middle Ages
2. Terra Australis in the early Renaissance
3. Java la Grande and Magellanica
4. Spanish vision of the Austral world: Medaña, Quirós, Torres
5. Exotica in sixteenth century Spain
6. Art, science and exploration in Elizabethan England
Part II. The Southern World in the Age of Dutch Expansion (1606–1756): 7. The Dutch image of the Southland
8. Dutch Australian expeditions: 1606–36
9. Antony van Diemen and the Great Southland (1636–45)
10. Art and the Dutch trading companies
11. The Great Southland and the republic of letters: Nicolaas Witsen (1641–1717) and his Kunstkammer
12. Epilogue
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]