Cartography and Translation: Mapping and Counter-Mapping the City

This chapter explores the relationship between translation and cartography by focusing on urban spaces. Starting with a discussion of the first Latin translation of Ptolemy's Geography (ca. 1410), it examines some exemplary city maps, in which spatial features are shaped by language or language-affine orientation practices, such as Hernán Cortés's map of Tenochtitlan published in Nuremberg in 1524, along with his Second Letter to King Carlos V (1522) and the Calcutta Cholera Map (1887). Moreover, drawing on Michel de Certeau's reflections on the view of Manhattan from the 110th floor of the World Trade Centre (ca. 1980), the chapter investigates the relationship between maps and itineraries from a translational point of view. Finally, commenting on Michael Cronin, Denis Wood and Sherry Simon among others, the chapter touches on the possible benefit of a counter-mapping of translation, discussing the concept of translational map.