European Perceptions of Terra Australis

Anne M. Scott is editor of the journal Parergon and an honorary research fellow in English and Cultural Studies at The University of Western Australia. Her recent books include Piers Plowman and the Poor (Dublin, 2004) and, with Andrew Lynch, Renaissance Poetry and Drama in Context (Newcastle, 2008). Alfred Hiatt is a Reader in English Literature at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of Terra Incognita: Mapping the Antipodes before 1600 (London and Chicago, 2008). Claire McIlroy is a Research Associate for international liaison in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions based at The University of Western Australia. She is also an honorary research fellow in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at The University of Western Australia, and author of The English prose treatises of Richard Rolle (Woodbridge, 2004). Christopher Wortham is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow in English and Cultural Studies at The University of Western Australia. He is also Professor of Theatre Studies and English Literature at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Fremantle. He has published widely on Renaissance poetry and drama.

• Chapter 1 Perceptions, Anne M. Scott; Chapter 2 Terra Australis and the Idea of the Antipodes, Alfred Hiatt; Chapter 3 The Roman South, Bill Leadbetter; Chapter 4 Meanings of the South, Christopher Wortham; Chapter 5 Terra Australis, Jave la Grande and Australia, W.A.R. (Bill) Richardson; Chapter 6 Mapping Terra Australis in the French Seventeenth Century, Margaret Sankey; Chapter 7 Ceremonial Encounters, Mercedes Maroto Camino; Chapter 8 Naming and Shaming, Jean Fornasiero, John West-Sooby; Chapter 9 Who Do You Trust? Discrepancies Between the ‘Official and Unofficial’ Sources Recording Explorers’ Perceptions of Places and Their People, Michael McCarthy; Chapter 10 ‘My Own Slender Remarks’, Katrina O’Loughlin; Chapter 11 Recovering the Imperial Context of the Mid-Victorian Exploration of Northern Australia, 1855–57, Norman Etherington; Chapter 12 The Wicked and the Fair, Leigh T.I. Penman;

'The book is of interest, among others, to cultural historians, historians of science, historians of cartography, the visual arts, and to scholars in the history of slavery and post-colonial studies. The Editors of this Volume have done a fine job by arranging all references into one single bibliography list at the end of the book: as such, the reader has access to one alphabetical list of about 30 pages of sources and references. The book contains more than 50 figures, mostly zonal maps and charts, world maps, and also reproductions of painted landscapes and portraits.' Journal of Astronomical Data 'European Perceptions of ’Terra Australis’ offers a treasure trove of ideas, insights, and further reading to explore, with useful illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography. The essays provide updates on contemporary debates in the field, bring into focus some little-known texts, and provide fresh interdisciplinary insights on a fascinating field.' Parergon ’... collectively, the essays can be understood as chapters in an intricate, non-linear story of, first, the construction of an elaborate fantasy of Terra Australis, and subsequently its replacement by the gradually revealed reality of the lands of the southern hemisphere, in particular Australia.’ Australian Historical Studies