Intersection: COSMOGRAPHY

At the end of the 15th century, navigators such as Ibn Majid, Zheng He and Christopher Columbus established direct contact between cultures and civilisations that up until then had been unknown to one another, establishing networks of exchanges on a truly global scale. Instruments used in navigation and cosmography developed rapidly, fostering an awareness of the magnitude of the world that prompted questions about the meaning of the universe. The first travelogues were published, recounting journeys to distant lands, while maps and globes charted the contours of this new world. The exotic materials and strangely-shaped works of art that filled “cabinets of curiosities” in Europe illustrated this fascination for distant and mysterious lands.