Chicago Map Society Presents: Legal Maps & Maritime Space

Title: Legal Maps & Maritime Space: The case of John Selden’s Mare clausum

Speaker: Hayley Cotter

Abstract: This talk considers maps as legible legal arguments. It investigates the eight engraved maps associated with the four editions of English jurist John Selden’s Mare clausum printed in 1635 and 1636, a treatise which defended the principle of closed seas. These cartographic supplements that were inserted into the book have been almost uniformly overlooked by legal historians. However, this talk demonstrates how these maps visually posit the possibility of maritime dominion. It reveals how these seemingly ornamental inserts, produced in London, Leiden, and Amsterdam, illustrate not only the legal arguments of Selden’s text, but also the national interests of the individual map makers, and shows how the maps evolved across editions. Its analysis will consider the cartographic framing of maritime space and the incorporation of decorative elements to support juristic and political principles.

Bio: Hayley Cotter is a scholar of early modern literature and culture. Specifically, her work investigates the legal, literary, material, and cultural manifestations of maritime law in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Her research has appeared in Renaissance Quarterly, Spenser Studies, and the Journal of Early Modern Studies. Hayley currently holds the Monticello College Foundation Fellowship for Women and the Mellon Foundation Fellowship at the Newberry Library. She was the 2023-2024 Kemble Fellow in Maritime History at the Huntington Library and has also received fellowships from the Herzog August Bibliothek and the Renaissance Society of America.

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