Exploring the extent to which the control over the materiality of writing has shaped the numerous and complex processes of cultural exchange from the 16th century onwards, this book introduces the specifities of written culture anchored in colonial contexts.

Adrien Delmas, Ph.D. (2010) in History, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, is currently reseacher at the European University Institute, Florence. He has published on travel writing in the early modern world, including Les voyages de l'écrit. Culture écrite et expansion européenne à l'époque moderne, essais sur la Compagnie Hollandaise des Indes Orientales (Honoré Champion, 2011).
Nigel Penn, Ph.D. (1995) in History, University of Cape Town, is Professor of History at the University of Cape Town. He has published extensively in early Cape colonial history including The Forgotten Frontier (University of Ohio Press, 2005).