Abstract: Some contemporary directors, cartoonists and writers are inspired by the voyage of discovery. Daniel Kehlmann and Umberto Eco question, at the heart of Die Vermessung des Welt and L'Isola del giorno prima, the very principles of the rewriting of the scientific narrative of travel. They both highlight the preconceptions of geographical discovery and proposed new criteria of scientificity, placing the scholar at the centre of the "nature" observed.