Through Berlinghieri's The Seven Days of Geography (1482), Roberts provides a highly original focus on the book as material artifact and contests prevailing views of its place in the history of geography and cartography. Most compellingly, his account of the book as a cultural go-between leads to a critique of models of Italian–Ottoman exchange current in early modern studies over the past decade.
Stephen Campbell, John Hopkins University Through his meticulous study of Francesco Berlinghieri's Geographia, Roberts deftly touches on some of the most timely and topical areas of recent research in the field of early modern studies: Artistic agency, materiality, patronage, print culture—and the nature of 'the Renaissance' itself.
Giancarlo Casale, University of Minnesota Roberts’s account of Berlinghieri’s intellectual biography is informed and rewarding. It uncovers the distinctive quality of fifteenth-century geography, and reveals the characteristic combination of classical geography, mythology, medieval history and legend found in The Seven Days of Geography. His discussion of the Renaissance reinvention of Ptolemaic mapping reflects his awareness of the recent paradigm shift in the history of cartography and of science. The old progressivist vision of history and universal concept of objectivity has no place in Sean Roberts’s exposition. This book has a good chance of becoming a classic on the subject.
Alessandro Scafi
Times Literary Supplement