ABSTRACT
The aim was not to treat images as artistic products first and foremost, but as epistemological and historical documents that closely reflect the eighteenth-century fascination with and investment in things. The collection is thus an endeavor international in reach and interdisciplinary in approach, drawing upon art criticism, literary studies, cartography, history, ethnography, archeology, word and image, cultural studies, as well as material and visual culture. The chapter examines the presence of terrae incognitae on cartographical depictions of eighteenth-century Spanish America, treating these spaces as hidden pockets of imperial claims on territories not yet under colonial control. It also brings us back to Captain Cook's voyages to the South Pacific, which take center stage in late-eighteenth-century reflections on modernity, imperialism and national identity. In this context, eighteenth-century things emerge as functional or superfluous, ubiquitous or singular, ephemeral or resilient, treasured or overlooked, desired or rejected, comforting or conflicting, civilizing or enlightening, local or international, material or spiritual.
