Known unknowns in the North. Uncertain maps of the Arctic in early modern times

In Early Modern times, there was much cartographic speculation on the topmost part of the globe. Whereas the Antarctic terra incognita (‘the not known southland’) has received ample discussion in the history of cartography, the world above the Arctic Circle can equally be considered a known unknown for premodern people. How (and why) to complete a map of a region where not a living soul had been? This article aims to show what mapmakers in Western Europe thought they knew, what they certainly did not know and what strategies they adopted to show or hide their uncertainties. This contribution demonstrates how clearly unsure, precarious and questionable knowledge of literally ‘marginal’ mapped areas was presented in many places and in many ways: in graphics; and in text, by omitting, adding or altering information. By zooming in on world maps and North Pole maps from the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries and examining them in a long-term chronological sequence, we can follow lines and lands that appear and disappear and trace the winding paths of mapping processes and practices through the centuries.