1Geography is inextricably related to the rather abstract notion of space, which may denote almost anything, from outer space to the space of individual experience, which cultural geographer Y-Fu Tuan, in Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, has identified with place. Whereas “space” is something “unrestricted” and extensive (Tuan 3), as well as more theoretical, “place” is related to individuality, the body and personal connections. Alternatively, “literary space”—according to Maurice Blanchot's L'espace littéraire (1955)—is the space developing "violently" (Blanchot 29) during the mutual contestation between the power of saying (“pouvoir de dire”) and the power of hearing (“pouvoir d’entendre”). Why violently? Because at the clash point between two atoms of intellectual debate during the nuclear fusion of literary creativity, as I see it, a massive amount of energy is released. From Blanchot’s perspective, literary space is personal, related to the body and human experience, and exposing issues of identity. Even more so, Blanchot writes of what he calls “la solitude de l’œeuvre” (11), the solitude of the literary work, which enhances individuality (even individualism) and sometimes ignores difference. This is the space of personal experience, where the autocracy of the self may be fully expressed through literature.
2Even if the literary work is non-fictional, as in the case of Pierre d’Avity’s The Estates, Empires, & Principallities of the World (1615), the distinctive bulk of the printed book (1234 folio pages) and its geographic and ethnographic parameters create a literary space of their own, which can be understood with the instruments of literary analysis rather than purely scientific geographic discourse. Literary space opens and expands into infinitesimal fragments of lived experience, expressed in d’Avity’s text through methodical descriptions of places and people. English readers are able to imbibe knowledge about other spaces and process it according to their own integrative experience. This monumental—and almost mythical—historical, geographic and ethnographic work is a vast compilation which reassembles data about the history of the Americas and the Spanish possessions, but also notes on the Incas and the Aztecs. Similarly, the vast book speaks about the Turks, but also about India and China. Two shorter parts deal with military orders and the origin of religions. Apparently, the sections are connected in the traditional succession of classical geography—derived from Strabo (1652), Pliny the Elder (1601), Ptolemy (1562), Caius Julius Solinus (1587) and Pomponius Mela (1585)—starting from the west (in this case, unusually, Britain, rather than Spain), and proceeding counter-clockwise through Europe, Asia and some African countries.
3 This is a massive book (with no maps), which offers a broad perspective on cultural geography and book history, in the sense of what James Raven calls “bookscape,” in Bookscape: Geographies of Printing and Publishing in London before 1800 (2014). Raven’s study visualizes the networks of people, places and practices at work in London’s book trade. In his use of “bookscape,” Raven restricts the concept’s domain to reconstructive mappings based on illustrative and topographical evidence about sites of book production, but concedes that the term suggests “the broader historical perception of ‘the world of books’” (Raven 5-6), in a sense that includes “the uses, travels and representations of books” (Raven 144). From the perspective of space and geography, d'Avity’s French (1614) and English (1615) texts can be reconstructed as bookscapes, in which the history of the book’s publication converges with human geography (sociology, history, religion, arts and literature), economic geography, as well as demography and ethnography. Although I will not delve so deeply into the actual history of printing of the English version of d’Avity’s book—in Raven’s strict understanding of “bookscape”—my focus is on the English reader and what (s)he might make of this vast literary geographic discourse, in the context of their time. Even more so, as I see it, d’Avity’s text cross-pollinates with classical and early modern historical and geographic discourses already available to English readers, in order to offer images of past and present societies.
- 1 According to the well-informed study by Allan H. Gilbert, entitled "Pierre D’Avity: His 'Geography' (...)
- 2 According to Alexandra Walsham, “The landscape is conceptualized not merely as a by-product of the (...)
4D’Avity’s literary space, therefore, encloses word, text and image (on the frontispiece) into a comprehensive whole, to such an extent that text becomes image and image becomes text, in a concatenation of literary geographies that offer a comprehensive perspective of the known world, since ancient times to the early seventeenth century. In this way, the French original and the English translation work like shifting and overlapping tectonic plaques, which interpenetrate with each other to offer different—yet similar—turns of reality to the reader, as seen from various perspectives. Even if the French original is the source of the English version, there are subtle influences and interactions from the English edition into the later French ones1, especially in what concerns the images on the frontispiece. The French original provides a wide-ranging view of the world’s geographic space through the landscapes2 and the peoples it evokes. Writing about the connection between religion and landscape in early modern Britain and Ireland by examining how religious assumptions influenced contemporary perceptions of physical environment, Alexandra Walsham compares the landscape with a palimpsest, on which cultures project their deepest concerns (6). Starting from this definition, I extrapolate by saying that the mental landscapes created by d’Avity’s text are not only palimpsestic superimpositions of previous cultural constructions, but they also create an interspace of their own within each culture that adopts d’Avity’s text through translation.
- 3 In “Charles Sorel et Pierre Davity” (1932), Jean Giraud traces the influence of d’Avity’s work on t (...)
5In the context of English readership expectations, it is important to mention the situation of censorship in the period. Recovering the system of beliefs and values that made the regulation of language—including state censorship—seem good ideas, Deborah K. Shuger, in Censorship and Cultural Sensibility: The Regulation of Language in Tudor-Stuart England (2006), mentions the “moral intelligibility of Tudor-Stuart censorship” (5), since censorship is one aspect of the regulation of language (Shuger 6). As in Tudor and Stuart England there was a body of rules shaping and disciplining utterance in accordance with the values and ideals of that particular society, there were certain expectations of the readers and translators regarding historical and geographical information retrieved from translated texts. Things were no different in France, where, as Sara E. Melzer shows in Colonizer or Colonized: The Hidden Stories of Early Modern French Culture (2012), early modern France carved out its emerging cultural identity in relation to both the New World and the Ancient World, “emphasizing the colonial/cultural dynamics that have marked both relationships” (3). D’Avity’s text is inscribed within these cultural parameters, which speak for its versatility. Moreover, literary space in d’Avity’s text opens up “violently” (Blanchot 29), since the power of saying almost overwhelms the reader’s power of hearing/reading, through the vehement combination of geographic and sundry information. Also, considering the rivalry between France and England, and their geopolitical strategic differences as projecting colonial powers, d’Avity’s text and its English translation mirror a violent cultural clash. Alternatively, the English version highlights—pragmatically—the predominant European culture and its various incarnations ever since ancient times, with incursions in the New World of America. The afterlives of d’Avity’s work, however, are not so impressive, as his influence on contemporary and later French literature3 is less remarkable than expected, considering the vastness of information offered by his treatise.
- 4 This 1625 French edition of d’Avity’s treatise is listed among the Folio books in the library of Ja (...)
6The original French edition, of fourteen hundred pages, was published by Olivier de Varennes, in 1614, under the title Les Estats, Empires, et Principautez du Monde, Representez par la Description des Pays, moeurs des habitans, Richesses des provinces, les forces, le gouvernement, la Religion, et les Princes qui ont gouverné chacun Estat. Avec L'origine de toutes les Religions, et de tous les Chevaliers et ordres Militaires. The four anagram letters (D. T. V. Y.) barely disguise the author’s name. Another French edition that I discuss here is entitled Les Estats, Empires, Royaumes, et Principautéz du Monde, représentez par l’ordre, naïfre, et veritable description des pays, moeurs des Peuples, Forces, Richesses, Gouvernemens, Religion, Princes, Magistrats & Souverains qui ont gouverné chacque Estat, & en quelle forme depuis leur establissement iusques au changemens modernes d’aucuns d’eux, à l’occasion des guerres dernieres & vicissitudes des temps. Illustrée Par la noble et celebre origine de tous les Ordres Militaires & des Chevalerie de toute la Chrestienté, tant anciens que Modernes, leur statuts, armes, devises et sous quells Empereurs, Roys, & Souverains ils ont commence & continue dans le Christianisme iusqu’à present. Avec l’institution des toutes les religions, compagnies regulieres, Monasteres, Convents, Ordres, Seminaires et societés, tant de l’un que de l’autre sexe, avec quells voeux, et quells temps, sous quells Papes, Monarques, Republiques, & Souverainetez, ells ont commence dans l’Eglise Catholique, iusques aujourd’hui. Par le Sieur D. T. V. Y. Gentil-homme ordinaire de la Chambre du Roy (1625).4 The slight differences in the capitalizations of the words in the titles of the two French editions (1614 and 1625) reveal linguistic instability rather than some additional importance given to certain concepts in the title. The title of the 1625 enlarged edition, however, highlights the importance of Christianity in the process of state formation. D’Avity’s book became popular immediately after its publication, with twenty French editions published before 1666, at St. Omer, Paris, Geneva and Rouen.
- 5 The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) is unclear as to who Edward Grimstone was, as th (...)
- 6 As Gilbert further observes, “Yet Milton would scarcely choose a textbook of geography with nothing (...)
7The English translation by Edward Grimstone5 was published by Adam Islip in London, one year after the 1614 French edition. This speaks well for the book’s popularity and its impact on European culture, as there had been considerable progress in publishing studies of geography in the period. The different languages and places of publication, as well as the publication of enlargements, show that this work was not only a popular textbook, but also a text in vogue with renowned scholars of various disciplines in the seventeenth century. As Allan H. Gilbert6 observes, giving a notable example from early modern English culture, John Milton’s geographical program included the study of ancient geographers, Mela, Pliny and Solinus, and then Dionysius Periegetes and d’Avity (Gilbert 322). Milton considered d’Avity not only suitable for English learners of French, but also the best obtainable among the recently published geographies (Gilbert 323). It is reasonable to conclude, however, that d’Avity’s text was not exceedingly popular in England in the seventeenth century—because of the competition with autochthonous English geographers and travel writers, such as George Abbot (1599), Hakluyt’s compilation (1600), Joseph Hall (1613), Peter Heylyn (1621), Arthur Hopton (1611), Samuel Lewkenor (1600), Fynes Moryson (1617), Samuel Purchas (1613), George Sandys (1615), Robert Stafford (1607), John Thorie (1599), Richard Eden (1555) and Richard Willes (1577)—but its importance was granted by the difference of perspective it could offer to English readers.
8Apart from its massive significance in the European concert of geographic voices, d’Avity’s text reaches political status and functional utility by delineating the spatial and cultural premises that would later lead to the notions of nation state and territorial nationalism. As d’Avity notes in “The Authors Preface to the Reader” (The Estates, 1615), he addresses both those who are interested in their own “Commonweale” (d’Avity, The Estates, 1615, sig. Ar) and those who focus solely on “the actions and manners of the Auncient, not respecting the Moderne” (sig. Ar). Thus, the French author speaks to pragmatic utilitarian realists and to classical scholars at the same time. The book is not only political, but also geographic, a “Corographie” (sig. Aijr) in which d’Avity paints the most remarkable places through discourse. Moreover, the notion of estate is central to the geographic and ethnographic descriptions. Arguing that the acquisition and legal protection of property are distinctive attributes for European states in the period, cultural historian Paul Stock, in Europe and the British Geographical Imagination, 1760-1830 (2019), notes that d’Avity deploys the word “estate” to connote “property and territorial possession as well as government and administration” (Stock 141). This theory linking property and social and governmental organization was popular in the period and would remain so for at least three centuries.
- 7 Although the book translated by Grimestone was never reprinted, retranslated or reedited in the sev (...)
9 Such books as D'Avity's The Estates, Empires & Principalities of the World (1615) were convenient and functional to a seventeenth-century European culture that sought to reinvent itself through the use of geographic knowledge of the past, in congruence with descriptions of newly added territories across the oceans. As the empire of the seas still belonged to Spain, d’Avity treats the New World as if under the domination of Spain (including Portugal) and the Roman Catholic religion. Even if he does mention New France, d’Avity says he will not describe these regions, but he does eventually, yet he barely mentions the colonies of France. In “Of the Estate of the Kinge of Spaine,” “The New World,” “The Fort of Saint Helene and the three of Florida,” d’Avity notes that “The French haue planted Colonies in this Prouince, wherefore I hold it needelesse to describe it” (d’Avity, The Estates, 1615, 224), as if this is a known fact to French readers. However, he mentions “the Cape of the New found land, or France Antarctike” (d’Avity, The Estates, 1615, 224). D’Avity totally neglects the English colonies, though he mentions Virginia, when he speaks of Florida: “As for Florida, it hath for bounds towards the East, Bahaman and the Islands of Lucayes, towards the West Mexico, and towards the South Cuba and Iucatan, and vpon the North Canada, Virginia and Noua Francia (d’Avity, The Estates, 1615, 224). According to F. S. Boas, “the translation is entered on the Stationers' Registers as early as December 2, 1614” (11). However, it seems that maritime and Protestant England was not so interested in d’Avity’s text, so that Edward Grimestone's early translation was the one that survived throughout the seventeenth century.7
- 8 According to the The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance (2003), Crispijn van de Passe, or Crispij (...)
10The frontispiece of the 1625 French edition (engraving by Crispijn de Passe the Younger8) is a tribute to Louis XIII, with personifications of the four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and the New World of America) paying homage to the French king. The standing female figures represented in the 1625 French edition face the French king with pride, and they offer the best natural produce each continent is expected to give. Only Asia, represented as a turbaned mogul, is kneeling and offering the French king its jewels in a casket. The centre panel represents images of empire, with four Eurasian princes (including the Ottoman one) serenely and augustly dominating the territories of the known world. The colonial territories, therefore, are symbolized by the codified allegories of the four continents, with the four parts of the world disposed around the throne of Louis XIII, and the lower register showing the emperors Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire ("Empereur des Romanes"), Philip IV of Spain ("Roy des Espagnes"), the Ottoman Sultan ("Empereur des Turcs") and the Great Khan of the Tartars ("Grand Cam de Tartario"). The lower panel of the 1625 edition, published in Paris, shows the French coat of arms, an aerial view of Paris at its centre, and the image of a French ship as an instrument of navigation, scientific research, and conquering new territories.
- 9 According to The Grove Encyclopaedia of Northern Renaissance Art (2009), the English engraver Renol (...)
- 10 This edition is in the Byerische Staadt Bibliothek, München and belonged to Placidus Gschwentner, a (...)
11By contrast, the frontispiece of the English translation, The Estates, Empires, & Principallities of the World (1615) (engraving by Renold Elstrack9), features King James I sitting on the throne, at the centre of a world in which the female representations of the four continents are kneeling in a position of subjection, while the centre panel represents four bellicose figures of a fully armed Northern European soldier below the representation of Europe, a Muslim slave trader below Africa, a fully armed Persian general below Asia, and a European soldier below America, armed with lance and shield. Even the animal symbolism of the London 1615 edition is more bellicose than the 1625 French one, as the lower panel represents a unicorn facing a lion, in battle position (emblem of the United Kingdom, England and Scotland) and an elephant chasing a female panther. These animals represent the four continents, the same as the soldiers above them. The imagery of purity, virtue, strength and prosperity related to the unicorn is opposed to the lion’s courage, dignity, strength, pride and wisdom. Conversely, the elephant symbolizes physical and mental strength, responsibility, durability, while the black panther represents courage, beauty, grace, and feminine power. Europe, therefore, embodies the virtue of the unicorn, Africa the lion’s strength, the elephant sustains Asia’s power, and the black panther incorporates America’s wilderness and strength. This engraving on the frontispiece of the English edition (1615) is a variant of the 1614 French edition (Paris: Olivier de Varennes10), where the French king Louis XIII is replaced by the English King James I, but the panels are maintained relatively the same.
- 11 A reference to James I, called “The Peacemaker” by his contemporaries.
- 12 Jaspar Isaac (Anvers 1585 - Paris, 23 May 1654) was a French engraver and stamp merchant of Flemish (...)
12The visual influence of the frontispiece from the French original (1614) makes the English (1615) edition not only an innovative translation of the French text, but also an imaginative adaptation of the engravings on the frontispiece. While, in the French 1614 edition, the Northern European soldier (armed with a gun) raises his hat (probably in sign of respect / farewell to the reader), in the English 1615 edition he keeps his hat on, but his hand is raised in sign of farewell or salute. The English edition has the coats of arms of England on the frontispiece, with the motto “BEATI PACIFICI”11 (Blessed are the peacemakers, St Matthew, 5:9) (The Estates 1615, Frontispiece), while the French 1614 edition proudly features the name of the French king: “LOYS XIII TRESCRESTIEN ROY DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE” (Les Estats 1614, Frontispiece). The French edition is signed “Iasper Isac fecit” (Les Estats 1614, Frontispiece),12 thus proudly showing the engraving’s paternity, but also suggesting the strong dependence between image and text. The contradiction between the bellicose nature of both frontispieces and the claim for peace in the English edition suggests that both empires (the already established French one and the emerging British one) are hopeful to rule the world, while the real nature of their colonizing aspirations is wisely concealed behind the wordless signals of the images. For this reason, the literary space of the English text opens up “violently” (Blanchot 29) for the English reader, announcing abruptly a more nuanced Protestant interpretation, as against the staunchly Catholic French source.
- 13 In “Edward Grimeston, the Translator” (1928), G. N. Clark concludes that Grimeston was “essentially (...)
- 14 Among the facts Grimestone omitted from his English translation are d’Avity’s statements about the (...)
- 15 Literally, geographia (in Latin), a description of the earth.
- 16 In a similar line of thought, Jens Bartleson, in War in International Thought (2018) compares Giova (...)
13In “The TRANSLATOR to the Reader” of The Estates (1615), Edward Grimestone (signed as EG) does not insist on the value of Avity’s book, which he leaves “to the mercie of the Booke-seller” (The Estates, 1615, n.p.), but he gives account of his labour of translation. In fact, this is not exactly a translation but an adaptation and a compilation13 of d’Avity’s text, because Grimestone finds it appropriate to add “diuers places” (The Estates, 1615, n.p.), and also “omitted some things”14 (The Estates, 1615, n. p., which he did not consider worth mentioning. Grimestone even goes as far as saying that d’Avity was “mistaken” (The Estates, 1615, n.p.), and he mentions the rephrasing of certain religious matters related to the perception of Christianity from a Protestant perspective. All in all, Grimestone considers d’Avity’s text as being “no Historicall discourse” (The Estates, 1615, n.p.) but “a Description of countries” (The Estates, 1615, n.p.). The English translator means that historical discourse involves an objective interpretation of facts, while d’Avity’s geography15 and ethnography does not interpret the events described, but rather he achieves a compilation of texts drawn from various authors.16 It is for this reason that the English translator is covertly critical of d’Avity’s compendium in his introduction.
14The AVANT-PROPOS of Les Estats (1614) begins with an apparent eulogy of people with “esprits ambitieux” (Les Estats 1614, sig. ῑv), such as the Persian kings and Alexander the Great (an implicit allusion to territorial conquest), and d’Avity announces that his book is not only delectable and curious, but also useful: “pas seulement delectable et curieuse, mais utile” (Les Estats 1614, sig. ῑijv). D’Avity divides people’s character—rather loosely—into those who are “tellement amoureux d’eux-memes, qu’ils tiennent pour un neant tout le reste” (Les Estats 1614, n.p.); and those who “demeurrent toutesfois tellement attachez à la consideration de leur seule Republique, qu’ils n’affectionent que ceste recherche” (Les Estats 1614, sig. ῑiijv). D’Avity seems to include his own personality among the latter group, though not explicitly. D’Avity alludes critically to the self-centred pragmatism of certain people and he implicitly invites readers to think outside the box and accept other cultures as examples of harmonious communities. Grimestone’s English translation, in “The Author’s Preface to the Reader,” translates “Republique” as “Commonweale” (The Estates 1615 n.p.), thus reaffirming the French text’s main concern with political and government matters, as well as issues of property.
15Indeed, the structure and bulk of the entire book (1467pp, the 1614 French edition and 1234pp, the 1615 English edition) is based on imperial dominance (past and present) and social and political hierarchies of human societies. The whole point is to represent, no more nor less than “the Science and Knowledge of the World” (The Estates, 1615, “Author’s Preface to the Reader” sig. Av), as d’Avity avers that he has “transplanted some peeces of certaine Authors,” aimed to provide “a naked report of the truth” (The Estates, 1615, “Author’s Preface to the Reader” sig. Aiijr). The lack of modesty involved in the claim to express nothing but the truth and the admission of the fact that this is a compilation from ancient and early modern authors are not surprising, because this is what geographers claimed to offer to their readers in those times. What is visible, however, is the unusual sincerity—and even candour—with which both d’Avity and the English translator take matters of imperial power as something natural to human societies; power and conquest, as well as the idea that might makes right, are considered worthy to be recorded in a self-respecting geographical and historical treatise.
16In the manner of ancient geographic narratives, the description of the world’s imperial power starts from west to east, with “The Estate of the King of Great Britaine” (The Estates 1615, pp. 1-36); “A Discourse of France” (The Estates 1615, pp. 37-101); “A Discourse of the Monarchies of Spaine” (The Estates 1615, pp. 102-162), with the adjoining territories, including the New World; “The Estate of the Low Countries” (The Estates 1615, pp. 289-349); “The Common-weale of Geneva” (The Estates 1615, pp. 349-352); “The Common-weale of the Suisse” (The Estates 1615, pp. 353-380); “The Estate of the Church of Rome” (The Estates 1615, pp. 394-471); other estates in Italy and the surroundings, of the Great Duke of Tuscanie, of Urbin, of Mantua, of Modena, of Lucca, of Genoa, of Venice, of Ragusa (The Estates 1615, pp. 472-547); The Holy Roman Empire (The Estates 1615, pp. 548-612); the realm of Hungary, the Kingdoms of Poland, of Denmark, of Sweden, as well as the Great Duke of Muscovia (The Estates 1615, pp. 613-699); then the countries of Asia, the Empire of the Great Cham of Tartaria, the King of China, the King of Japan, of Burma, of Cambogia, of Calicut and Narsinga in India; and the Sophi of Persia, in ancient and early modern times (The Estates 1615, pp. 700-929). The discourse moves on to “The Estate of the Turke in Europe,” including the territories under Ottoman control in Europe and North Africa (The Estates 1615, pp. 930-114) and the religious military orders, such as the Knights of Malta, of Jerusalem, and other religious orders (The Estates 1615, pp. 1141-1234). The entire book is centred on power of state and imperial rule, even if the order of the description of the countries is the traditional ancient periplus, from west to east and then back to west.
17In the French 1614 edition, the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, the Island of Sardinia and the Dukedom of Milan are under the estate of the King of Spain; so are the Canary Islands, the Islands of Cape Verde, Mozambique, Goa (India), Malacca and Philippines (of the Portuguese) and the Azores (Les Estats 1614, pp. 188-255). In the section about the New World, the French edition mentions Florida, Mexico, Yucatan, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Española, Cuba, Jamaica, and the Caribbean (or Isle of Cannibals) (Les Estats 1614, pp. 255-294). The general discourse of the New World is honest and positive, without mentioning the Spanish aggression against the local population. Similarly, the English 1615 edition mentions the Spanish possessions of the New World (The Estates 1615, pp. 217-271). The chapter entitled “DISCOVRS EN GENERAL SVR Le Nuveau Monde” (Les Estats 1614, pp. 294-322) traces the civil government of the New World (governed by two Viceroys of Mexico and Peru), the ecclesiastical government, the ways in which these nations, which are still “barbarous” (“encore que barbares” Les Estats 1614, 297), know God, their idolatries in worshipping the statues, as well as their temples. Priests in religious nations offer sacrifices to local gods, and even human sacrifice. However, there is good disposition among the people for receiving the Christian Gospel. Superstition of the native peoples of the New World, prodigies and the prediction of Christianity in their religion are mingled to create a kind of mystic space about the Indians’ possible conversion to Christianity, in which readers can move freely and draw their own conclusions.
18The English version of the chapter entitled “A DISCOVRSE IN GENERAL OF THE NEW WORLD” (The Estates 1615, pp. 250-271) is an accurate translation, which begins with the invincibility of the Spanish possessions of the New World, because of their geographic position. D’Avity mentions several incursions from the English ships (when Sir Francis Drake sacked the town of Saint Dominico and Cartagena), but the Spanish possessions in Florida, for example, are protected by strong currents that allow few ships to pass (The Estates 1615, 250). As the English text concludes, “as the scituation of Italie seemes to haue beene made by nature to commaund the Mediterranean sea, so that of Spaine seemed to be famed to rule ouer the Ocean; and experience teacheth, that the Spaniards are of a complection for to endure all climats and countries” (The Estates 1615, 250). This justification may lie at the basis of an inference from the perspective of the British imperial aspiration—not yet fully realized at the time of publication of d’Avity’s treatise—according to which the Spanish resilient spirit of conquest was matched by the British incipient imperial ambitions. This might explain the sign of farewell or salute of the Northern European soldier on the frontispiece of both the French (1614) and English (1615) editions. The soldier represents Europe, and he may be waving farewell or making a salute. With or without raised hat, but with raised hand in sign of farewell or salute, the soldier’s posture implies that the Europeans may have achieved the maximum of their colonizing ambitions and are now ready to settle down, and possibly leave others to conquer territories. This is a plausible interpretation from the perspective of competition with Spain for the colonies, from both the English and the French side.
19Seen from the angle of space and the emerging bookscapes suggested by each edition (French and English) of d’Avity’s text, these geographic and ethnographic discourses inform the reader not only on vast areas of geographic space—with spatiotemporal digressions about customs and national stereotypes derived from ancient times—but they also open up literary spaces of individual experience, where experiential place speaks for continents and nations, with proleptic projections. While they are indirectly nudged to ascertain the absolute truth of the geographic, political and economic descriptions, these two texts are subliminal invitations for readers to envision possible worlds that open beyond the territorial confines of their countries, like simultaneously existing multiverses in a fictional work. By accepting the interpenetration of old and new worlds—with their superstitions, prodigies, riches, and even cannibals and witchcraft—these texts delineate images of future empires unwritten yet in history and geography books, but which are waiting to be seized by the European enterprising spirit.
20Despite the strong colonial connotations of d’Avity’s text and its English translation, the geographic descriptions provide suitable food for imagination, allowing readers to see how empires ascended and fell, and to hope for the expansion of other empires and possibilities of exploration. The apparently limited spaces of these bookscapes may be transformed into quasi-realistic landscapes of other worlds, or mindscapes emerging from the French and English readers’ imaginations. Even if these texts might compete with other geographic narratives of the time, the potential reality of these literary spaces is not entirely diminished, but it accrues importance and imaginary scope with each reading and interpretation. What claims to be a matter-of-fact non-fictional book about the empires and countries of the world turns out to become a vehicle through which fictional landscapes are created, which strongly appeal to the readers’ imagination. Grimestone’s translation was frequently quoted in later geography texts, without mention of d’Avity’s authorship, but under Grimestone’s name. This shows that the English 1615 translation by Edward Grimestone has come to be integrated into the fibre of the English readers’ imagination.
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