ABSTRACT
The humanities have been part of geographical knowledge and its expression for centuries, finding in maps and cartographic imaginations useful, intimate companions to reflect with, challenge and advance new spatial paradigms, methods and metaphors. In this introduction, the editors trace the genealogy, chart the present and prospect the future of the fruitful encounter between map studies and the humanities under the innovative framework labelled as the ‘cartographic humanities’. They explain how a humanistic gaze is here adopted not just to show how cartography traverses distinct disciplinary fields of the humanities but also to suggest foundational nodes, shared instances, ongoing contradictions, recurring interrogations and present urgencies emerging within the developing global arena of humanistic map scholarship. Finally, they provide a detailed overview of this handbook’s seven parts and 42 chapters.
