Introduction: Methods of Knowing

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the Italian Renaissance poet Matteo Maria Boiardo's insistence on the essential fluidity between historical discourse and creative invention and the ways in which he calls attention to historiography's use of creative embellishment. It discusses how knowledge about the British Atlantic colonies, as exhibited in museums or discussed in art historical scholarship, remains partially concealed because of the continuing influence of stories about colonized lands and peoples first told during the period of colonization itself. The book examines the reciprocal relations between nostalgia and imagination in the production of history.