Cartography, Geometry, and Communication: How to Narrate the Shape of the World Before and After the Journey of Magellan and Elcano

Introduction: The analysis of the maps around the first crossing around the world is undoubtedly fundamental to explain the knowledge of the new discovered world. These maps were clearly one of the biggest samples of visual communication at that time. Methodology: With this motive, this investigation tries to perform an analysis of the sixteenth-century world maps related to the circumnavigation journey of Magallanes and Elcano and produced by the cartographers of the Contracting House of Seville, paying special attention to the difference between maps before and after the trip. Content analysis is used as a technique. Results and conclusions: The differences between maps emerge in other elements related to the context such as the presence of titles and dates of production inserted in the maps, and in the semiotics of ordinal type. However, it should be noted that this analysis does not contemplate the mapping of the maps or the reliability of their representation.