Mapping Shakespeare: An Exploration of Shakespeare’s Worlds Through Maps

by Jeremy Black

An exploration through maps of the land and time in which Shakespeare wrote.

This beautiful new book looks at the England, Europe, and wider world in which William Shakespeare worked through maps and illustrations that reveal the way that he and his Tudor contemporaries saw their land and their place in the world. Lovers of Shakespeare's plays will delight in seeing Romeo and Juliet's 16th century Verona, and the Venice of Antonio and Shylock. Mapping Shakespeare explores the locations of his plays and looks at the possible inspirations for these and why Shakespeare would have chosen to set his stories there.

Genres: History, Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Maps, Reference, Geography

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Jeremy Black is an English historian, who was formerly a professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).

Reviews

[Nadja · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed by this book. I expected something else. It doesn't give much information about Shakespeare, but it is more focused on the history of map making itself. While it does touch on the setting of some of Shakespeare's plays, it does not really provide maps associated with Shakespeare's life itself.

[Delirious Disquisitions · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeremy Black's Mapping Shakespeare is a fantastic overview of mapping in England. Black covers everything from the inception of mapping in the Renaissance period to their rise in popularity in the Tudor age. There are details on both the practical and symbolic uses of maps in Shakespeare's time and through his plays. This has been very, very helpful for my research paper on Henry IV. Highly recommend to anyone interested in learning more about mapping in Shakespeare's time or plays.

[John Isles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Shakespeare and I love old maps, so I had to buy on sight this book, which describes itself as "An exploration through maps of the land and time in which Shakespeare wrote." Well, the land he wrote in was England, but here we have maps of all parts of the then known (and some of the then unknown) world. The maps are reproduced on a small scale often too small to read properly, but there are detailed captions. They are interspersed with essays by the author, a Professor of History at the University of Exeter, who does his best to link the maps with some of Shakespeare's plays. Unfortunately the links are tenuous: Shakespeare was careless with his geography or astonishingly ignorant, and I really doubt that he ever made much use of maps. Thus he begins "A Winter's Tale" with a shipwreck on the coast of Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) which certainly doesn't have a coastline; and in "Two Gentlemen of Verona" he has people traveling between Verona and Milan by ship, which would have involved circumnavigating the entire Italian peninsula instead of making the short overland journey. Still, I enjoyed the maps!

[Lois Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book which I found almost impossible to read. Too much information is crammed on a single page. While the information is interesting it’s almost impossible to make sense of as everything about a map is crushed into the convenient space next to it. Furthermore, you will need a magnifying glass to read some of the maps. I learned a lot about Shakespeare’s worlds, but it was a struggle to get there.

[Allegria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Jeremy Black charts his way through the use of paintings, maps and his wealth of knowledge of Shakespeare's plays to produce this fascinating, beautiful book. As a renowned historian he explores the locations of the plays and changing political times portrayed in them. This new take on Shakespeare is lavishly illustrated and presented. A welcome gift or coffee table addition.

[Ian Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lavishly illustrated book that dovetails the history of cartography with the geography of Shakespeare’s plays. A lovely book, both in content and appearance.