History of Cartography

Description

The early map is the end-product of mental and technical processes no longer familiar to us; to read its message aright we have to understand the methods by which it was made and the circumstances in which it was produced. In this fascinating book, one of the greatest experts on cartography has examined the maps of various periods and cultures, from early antiquity to the eighteenth century, putting them into historical perspective by his clear account of their evolution. This revision of the original German edition for the English- speaking reader includes some rearrangement of the text, which has been expanded in many places and corrected in the light of recent research. The List of Cartographers, an important feature of the book, now contains some 1500 names, while the Classified Bibliography has been brought up to date. There is also a full Index. The value of the book is enhanced by more than 200 reproductions, in monochrome and colour, of notable maps. Some of these visual records have, in their time, made more impact on the mind of men than the printed word; their importance as historical documents is matched by their magnificence as works of art. No fuller or more useful collection of reproductions of early maps is to be found in any work of comparable size, or indeed outside any but the most expensive facsimile atlases.