The Law of the Land

This chapter examines the form of Lazamon’s Brut. It starts by defining the term choreographia in 16th and 17th centuries, a passion for the representation of territory so general that it spans the graphic and verbal arts. It describes the different activities of cartography and narrative so thoroughly that it removes the distinction between history and maps. It implies the importance and stability of land in its ability to remain unchanged throughout continuous waves of human events. The first section exposes the flaws of the form of the Brut as well as its uses in topography and mapping. The second section tries to explain Lazamon’s point that the ‘laws are in the land’. The last section looks into the nature of the poet and offers that the choreographia of the Brut is also a consolatio.

Geography · Political science · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Law