La expansión atlántica de la Monarquía hispánica por el mapamundi de Urbano Monte (1587)

Abstract

In 1587, the milanese cartographer Urbano Monte wrote a treatise aiming to show the physical, geo-graphical and ethnological features of the known world, as well as the historical facts that happened shortly be-fore his time. In this work, the author included a planisphere, designed with a projection as seen from the North Pole. In this map, he represented a huge amount of information taken from a variety of historical, literary and cartographical sources. Among them, Monte included a textual and graphic representation of Phillip II of Spain and his control of the Atlantic Ocean. This depiction has a profound level of significance, which will be analysed in this article, as well as its sources and methods. Thus, our aim is to study and explain the role of the Hispanic Monarchy’s atlantic expansion within the ideological and textual discourse of this map.