Representation of space(s): cosmography and world history in Guillaume Postel’s De universitate liber (1552)

The French scholar Guillaume Postel (1510–1581) is widely known as a self-proclaimed prophet and visionary Christian Kabbalist. In this article, I provide a new account of his concept of restitutio, arguing that it is driven by a fundamentally political and Christian agenda rather than a purely conciliatory religious vision. I focus on the first part of his earliest published cosmographical work, De universitate liber (1552), which has hitherto been largely overlooked. First, I provide the historical and cultural context in which Postel’s work was conceived. I then analyze the text, showing how Postel’s representation of different spaces has a central role in his vision of a unified cosmos. The article shows how symmetries and correspondences between celestial, terrestrial, geographical, and political spaces are instrumental to Postel’s idea of universal restitutio. This idea is ultimately conceived as the establishment of a perfect form of universal sovereign rulership, explicitly and necessarily Christian, grounded in the structure of the heavens and inscribed in humanity’s ancient history. Against this background, the paper also reevaluates a variety of disciplines and sources, including mystical and prophetic material, that Postel combined to support his political program.