Appropriations, editorial improperties and cartographic productions concerning the representation of the Rio de la Plata in dutch atlases of the 17th century

Abstract

This article aims to analyze some aspects of the editorial, commercial and intellectual character concerning the production and circulation of two geographical charts in the 17th century, representing Paraguay, also known as Rio de la Plata, which are: 1) Paraguay, ó prov. de Rio de la Plata cum regionibus adiacentibus. Tucuman et S.ta Cruz de la Sierra; e 2) Paraquaria vulgo Paraguay. Cum adjacentibus. The cartographic production, the context of Dutch editorial graphic, the inconsistencies between the maps (visual texts) and the related chorographic texts constitute one of the faces of the debate. In parallel, the appropriation of a pro Jesuit attitude, on the part of some historians of the Rio de la Plata – which was consolidated based on the intellectual production of Guillermo Furlong S. J., in the first half of the 20th century – in presence of these maps, is analysed and criticized. The sources are, at first, maps and books (mainly the Atlas) in which these geographic charts were repeatedly published. The theoretical approach dialogues with historians affiliated on the New Cultural History – with Roger Chartier as the main point – and with Art and Cartography Historians too.