Reason of State and Nautical Geographic in the first Atlas of Brazil (1612-1627)

Abstract

This scientific initiation project aims to verify the hypothesis that the cartographic images of the "Book that gives the Reason for the State of Brazil", authored by Diogo Moreno, were part of a "Razão de Estado" from the 17th century that aimed to knowledge and, above all, the understanding of the forms of accessibility to a strip of land in the South Atlantic. The "Book that Gives Reason..." was written between 1612-1613 and the original version does not exist, but only five apographs. His set of images of the Brazilian coast circulates fragmented in historiography and as an illustration of colonial Brazil. The objective of this project is to identify the purposes of its production, its own sources of production and explain the visual narrative of the territory established by the serialization of images through its analytical comparison with correspondence from the governor general, the written text that accompanies the atlas and historical-geographical chronicles and other Portuguese atlases of the period. The methodology of this project is that of the social history of cartography, focusing on the map production process, its contextualization and understanding that the seriation/atlas expresses a social narrative that can be investigated. The study of this "Book..." contributes to understanding the forms of construction and implementation of the State in Brazil and the mechanisms of institutional communication based on visual artifacts.