ISLOMANIA

Two years before Columbus discovered the West Indies in 1492, Cristoforo Buondelmonti published his 'Liber insularum archipelagi', The Book of the Islands of the Archipelago. This early example of the genre of island literature influenced Antonio Pigafetta when he wrote his account of Magellan's Voyage around the World; he presented it as a work combining narrative and cartography.

Early references to islands in Celtic myth and lore, and legends of islands at the 'edge of the world' and the continuum of island literature and narratives from then to now show that the concept of the island is embedded into human consciousness.

This project is to research the genre of island narratives and create an 'archipelago' of islands and cross-reference between them. Some of the islands in this archipelago will be fictitious inventions of writers such as Shakespeare and Stevenson. Some will be legendary and real, documented by explorers and travellers like Dampier, and Slocum and mythical islands such as the Atlantic Isle of Brazil near to Ireland.

My intention is to 'explore' the 'archipelago' and add new islands to the chart. Some earlier 'visitors' to these islands will be researched and documented.