Urban Images of the Hispanic World, 1493-1793

URBAN IMAGES OF THE HISPANIC WORLD, 1493-1793 / Richard L. Kagan, with the collaboration of Fernando Marias. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. [Symbol Not Transcribed] [times], 235 pp.: ill. (chiefly col.), maps (chiefly col.), col. portr.; 29 cm. ISBN 0-300-08314-9, US$50. Available from: Yale University Press, PO Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040, USA. Tel. [phone]; Fax [phone].

Richard Kagan, a renowned scholar of Spanish history, has added another book to his rich and varied oeuvre. An earlier work, Spanish Cities of the Golden Age: The Views of Anton Van den Wyngaerde, married coffee-table splendour to academic rigour in its study of sixteenth-century city views. In this new book, Kagan bridges the Atlantic and widens his scope to take in the images produced of Spain's colonial cities for almost three centuries. A Spanish version, Imagenes urbanas del mundo hispanico, 1493-1780, was published in the previous year.

Kagan joins map studies post-Harley, and thus sees the changes in urban images not simply as evidence of evolving technology but as reflecting shifts in the understanding of urban communities. In his words, "differing conceptions of urban space influenced...