Da veracidade à denúncia do falso nas descrições geográficas da Época Moderna

Abstract

In geographic descriptions of the early modern period we find a set of strategies to convince or speculate about the geography of spaces unknown to Europeans or about which they had little information. Between objective and concrete data about geography and deliberate falsification there is a vast spectrum of situations. It is difficult to express this multiplicity of cases in just one term: inaccuracy, falsification, imprecision, error, lie, imagination, fabrication. For each object, map or description, different elements must be investigated in order to understand the result we observe, its motivations and effects. The objective of this article is to identify expressions, images and practices adopted by producers of geographic literature in the early modern period to ensure veracity and credibility to their descriptions. It also presents, in an exploratory way, how contemporaries allowed themselves to evaluate and denounce untruths in these documents.