Introduzione all’edizione italiana

The Italian introduction to Imaginary Geographies by Roger Chartier retraces the key conceptual and methodological concerns underpinning the recent work of the French historian. Chartier’s volume examines the presence of maps in fictional texts from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, considering them not only as instruments of spatial reference, but as active components in meaning-making and textual reception. Navigating across various European literary traditions and genres—from utopian fiction to satire, from adventure narratives to allegorical cartography—Chartier investigates the role of cartographic imagery in the construction of narrative space and in shaping readers’ imaginaries. L. Braida’s introduction reconstructs the theoretical premises of this approach, grounded in the concept of textual mobility, a focus on the material forms of textual transmission, and a rigorous historicization of the publishing practices that have reshaped texts over time.