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Mapping the World
A history of maps and map making which details some 200 maps from around the world, from the earliest recorded examples to the end of the Nineteenth Century Illustrated in color throughout
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 8, 2021
Review title: Read while sitting down
Forget code table "book"; this is the coffee table. This is without a doubt the heaviest book I have ever read. Weighed on my kitchen scale it come in at nearly seven pounds, with 250 thick glossy pages 12 x 17 inches perfect for showcasing these examples of the cartographic art.
And actually there is very little reading of words, mostly reading of maps, as this beautiful book is full of maps. Swift (a pen name for a British publisher) had gathered a collection of maps throughout the world and history arranged in chronological order to show how the art of mapping has changed and progressed. After a short history of map making and short biographies of key names in the history of the field (Ptolemy, Vespucci, and Mercador among them), the best part of the book is paging through it and seeing the history unfold with your own eyes: from the earliest hand drawn maps on vellum, the progression from the fantastic, to the incomplete, to the first efforts to map the outlines of the continents during the age of discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, to the efforts to fill in the gaps in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the transition to intercity roads and railroads in the 19th centuries.
The one drawback here, besides the weight and size that renders this a desk-bound reference, is the lack of any kind of indexing. It really needs an index of cartographers and geographies referenced to be a classic. But for lovers of the map and the places they show us this is a beautiful addition to your oversized books shelf.
Forget code table "book"; this is the coffee table. This is without a doubt the heaviest book I have ever read. Weighed on my kitchen scale it come in at nearly seven pounds, with 250 thick glossy pages 12 x 17 inches perfect for showcasing these examples of the cartographic art.
And actually there is very little reading of words, mostly reading of maps, as this beautiful book is full of maps. Swift (a pen name for a British publisher) had gathered a collection of maps throughout the world and history arranged in chronological order to show how the art of mapping has changed and progressed. After a short history of map making and short biographies of key names in the history of the field (Ptolemy, Vespucci, and Mercador among them), the best part of the book is paging through it and seeing the history unfold with your own eyes: from the earliest hand drawn maps on vellum, the progression from the fantastic, to the incomplete, to the first efforts to map the outlines of the continents during the age of discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, to the efforts to fill in the gaps in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the transition to intercity roads and railroads in the 19th centuries.
The one drawback here, besides the weight and size that renders this a desk-bound reference, is the lack of any kind of indexing. It really needs an index of cartographers and geographies referenced to be a classic. But for lovers of the map and the places they show us this is a beautiful addition to your oversized books shelf.
January 18, 2015
Hermoso. Alucinante.
August 27, 2008
It is an attractive book with lots of interesting old maps; but little discussion.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews