Written by 19 scholars of history, archaeology, and ethnology, this book takes a multidisciplinary approach to European spaces of the past and the human agents within them. Prior to the Industrial Era, the geography of Europe posed problems but also offered possibilities for its people. Distances created obstacles to communication and state formation, but at the same time, inhabitants and officials in peripheral areas gained room to pursue more independent action, allowing unique customs to flourish. Focusing on northern Europe, this history answers how early modern Europeans - rulers, officials, aristocrats, scholars, priests, and commoners - perceived, utilized, and organized the space around them.

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Note on names and administrative terms
• Introduction - Mapping Physical and Cultural Space in Pre-industrial Europe
• PART I - EARLY MODERN MAPPING DECODED
  • CHAPTER 1 - Theology and Map Publishing
    • Introduction
    • Novelties and continuities in sixteenth-century cartography
    • Cartographic revolution of the sixteenth century
    • The Protestant revision of God, sight and nature
    • The Protestants behind atlas production
    • A tentative conclusion and further signposts
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
  • CHAPTER 2 - Maps, Borders and State-building
    • Introduction
    • From mappamundi to the maps of Ptolemy
    • Similarities between ancient and late medieval borders
    • The abstract border emerges in the maps of Ptolemy
    • Maps for the public: pictorial depiction of borders in maps
    • Cartography as a tool of state-building in Renaissance Europe
    • The emergence of the linear border in maps of Scandiavia
    • The borderline appears in maps of the Swedish–Russian border
    • An exact border in Swedish maps
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
• PART II - MOVEMENTS IN SPACE
  • CHAPTER 3 - In Deep, Distant Forests
    • Time and space
    • Indigenous world
    • Travel
    • New world
    • New ways
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
  • CHAPTER 4 - A Travelling Governor
    • Introduction
    • Diary as a source material
    • Distances and office-holding
    • Mapping office-holding in a periphery
    • Realm of estates and power relations
    • Cultural distance and closeness
    • Travelling: farewells and welcomes
    • Gifts
    • Conclusion
    • Acknowledgements
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
• PART III - INFORMATION FLOWS
  • CHAPTER 5 - Distance as an Argument
    • Introduction
    • Flow of information: carrying letters
    • Uncertainty and waiting
    • The king’s plan: ‘a fortress is to be built’
    • Arvid Tawast finds excuses
    • The tangle of power relations
    • Conclusion
    • Acknowledgements
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
  • CHAPTER 6 - Shaping a Political Network
    • Introduction
    • The Prince of Condé
    • Condé’s French partners
    • Condé’s European partners
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
• PART IV - LOCAL POWER
  • CHAPTER 7 - The Reach of Power
    • Introduction
    • The area
    • The family
    • The reach of social space
    • Mobility
    • The human web
    • Acknowledgements
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
  • CHAPTER 8 - The Limits of Power
    • Introduction
    • In the courtroom
    • Incriminated by neighbours
    • Escaping the threat of divine punishment
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
• PART V - RECONSTRUCTING BYGONE LANDSCAPES
  • CHAPTER 9 - Landscapes of Power
    • Introduction
    • Power and the landscape
    • Background, material and methods
    • Sites of churches and chapels
    • Sites of fortifications
    • Elements of religious power
    • Monuments of secular power
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
  • CHAPTER 10 - Virtual Landscape Modelling
    • Introduction
    • The development of landscape rendering
    • Challenges of landscape data
    • Reasons to render
    • Reasons not to render: the traps of realism and photorealism
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
• PART VI - FRAMEWORKS OF EVERYDAY LIFE
  • CHAPTER 11 - A Rural Living Sphere
    • Introduction
    • Intentions, sources, methods
    • The border around the village
    • Borders as sources of segregation
    • A ‘landscape of fear’?
    • To hold on to and cross borders
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
  • CHAPTER 12 - Urban Boundaries
    • Introduction
    • Maps and probate inventories
    • Towns in early modern Sweden
    • Maps and boundaries
    • Enclosing urban space
    • Demarcating domestic space
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
  • CHAPTER 13 - Regional Inequality
    • Introduction
    • Economic growth and economic inequality
    • Method and sources
    • Mean wealth as a spatial variable: the case of Finland in 1571
    • The role of landowners in the economy
    • Prices, harvests and the role of the state
    • Regional differences in development trends
    • Regional differences in levels of economic inequality
    • Inequality mapped
    • Conclusions
    • Notes
    • Bibliography
• Afterword - Beyond Space?
• Contributors