Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes

Three stages in the history of Greek cartography invite us to reflect on the nature and power of these drawings that made the ‘inhabited world’ both visible and thinkable. Maps reflect, above all, our specific ways of seeing and our intellectual practices. Through graphic mediation, the latter aim to subject the world to a geometrical order or trace the progression of the quest for knowledge and wisdom. The history of cartography cannot avoid a fundamental question : Why is our representation of space graphic ?