On the threshold of the modern era, cartographic scholarship merges with systematic administrative spatial documentation. In the mirrors for princes of the 16th century, the prince is referred to as the first cartographer of his land. A growing and increasingly educated civil service begins to describe and map the land, which is now becoming a 'territory', in all its facets. The map of the land transforms the knowledge of cartographers into political power. Cartographic representations and other forms of land surveying turn geographical space into a realm of possibilities: they provide political actors with the scientific tools to capture, monitor, and reshape the space and its population according to their visions. What are the possibilities and limitations of cartography as a means of political power in the 16th century?.