Images for the History of Communication: The First Engravings from the Americas

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to make an in-depth study of the image as a form of representation of the reality which reflects history in a unique way, and to discuss the different factors that may have impact on the correlation between reality and its representation by an image. For that purpose, the first engravings circulated in Europe of American natives will be used as an example, to determine their characteristics, and their authors. The study demonstrates how the images are determined by the interpretations, beliefs and previous knowledge of the artists or publishers of the 92 studied images, none of whom had direct knowledge of the American reality