4. Virgil. Opera Virgiliana. Lyon: I. Crespin, 1529. Considered to be one <strong>of</strong> the greatest poems <strong>of</strong> Western literature, Virgil’s literary epic <strong>of</strong> the Roman Empire, Aeneid, was published posthumously in 19 BCE. in Book Vi the protagonist Aeneas retrieves a golden bough that allows him to travel to the Underworld, Tartarus. Aeneas explores the most terrifying parts <strong>of</strong> this nether world, where condemned souls reside. He also witnesses the most beautiful parts <strong>of</strong> Elysium, the eternal fields <strong>of</strong> blessed souls, which impart health <strong>and</strong> eternal life to those who have earned blessings. A countrified way station located in the Underworld, Elysium stood apart from Tartarus, the place <strong>of</strong> eternal punishment. These juxtaposed places <strong>of</strong> blessing <strong>and</strong> punishment can be found in the <strong>Chris</strong>tian doctrine <strong>of</strong> Heaven <strong>and</strong> Hell, <strong>and</strong> were later explored by Dante in his Divina commedia. Moreover, the idea that there are both ideal <strong>and</strong> imperfect places in which humans could be forced to live is a key theoretical underpinning behind the concepts <strong>of</strong> utopia <strong>and</strong> dystopia. This sixteenth-century edition contains several woodcuts depicting Aeneas’s j<strong>our</strong>ney to the Underworld. The image displayed shows Elysium, where everyone enjoys singing, dancing, drinking, <strong>and</strong> eating, having discarded their weapons <strong>and</strong> their horses for the sake <strong>of</strong> eternal life. 5. Ptolemy (2nd cent.). Geographia vniversalis. Basel: Sebastian Münster, 1545. This edition <strong>of</strong> Ptolemy’s Geographia vniversalis contains multiple maps <strong>of</strong> the different countries <strong>and</strong> continents <strong>of</strong> the known world, including one showing the world before the discovery <strong>of</strong> the Americas in 1492. Depicted prominently in the southeast corner <strong>of</strong> the map is the continentalsize isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Taprobana (modern day Sri Lanka). During the reign <strong>of</strong> Alex<strong>and</strong>er the Great in the third century BCE, Taprobana was considered by many classical writers to be a second world. in the sixteenth century Taprobana was thought to be a continent that connected the west to the east, containing an abundance <strong>of</strong> res<strong>our</strong>ces, particularly spices, for trade. <strong>Chris</strong>topher Columbus thought that he had reached Taprobana when he first l<strong>and</strong>ed on the isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Hispaniola in 1492. The German cartographer, cosmographer, <strong>and</strong> Hebrew scholar, Sebastian Münster, published this edition <strong>of</strong> Geographia vniversalis in Basel, 1545. Münster’s major work, Cosmographia, published during the preceding year in 1544, was the earliest German description <strong>of</strong> the known world that included the discovery <strong>of</strong> the Americas, <strong>and</strong> displayed the world in a more global, circular projection. <strong>From</strong> <strong>Nowhere</strong>: <strong>Utopian</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Dystopian</strong> <strong>Visions</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>our</strong> Past, Present, <strong>and</strong> Future 19
5. Geographia vniversalis 20 Case One: The Classical Age