ABSTRACT
Written during the years following the publication of Christopher Saxton's atlas of the counties of England and Wales, this initial version reflected Spenser's first and most marked response to the period's burgeoning sense of cartographic awareness, and stands as a coherent representation of his poetic issues and concerns. This chapter focuses on a narrower range of factors, isolating English cartographic reflections from the more advanced technologies of the continent and addresses the developments in English literature and cartographical culture in a more precise way. For almost as soon as the poet introduces his version of the romance landscape, changing the nature of the world he/her constructs. The world of medieval romance was in a fundamental sense the world of the medieval romance writer. The chapter examines the versions of these romances that predated the sixteenth century and establishes the earlier, medieval cultural and geographical context which Spenser both used and subverted.
