Maps in Those Days

Book excerpt: For some years the emphasis in map-historical literature has been either on traditional cartobibliography or on various cultural, social and ideological aspects of the mapping process. By contrast, few recent books have described what early carthographers actually did. Maps in Those days addresses this question. It deals with non-thematic maps of all kinds and of all parts of the world from earliest times to the mid-19th century, with particular reference to classical antiquity, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment in Europe and in countries of European settlement, especially Britain and Ireland. This book should interest researchers who use early maps as historical sources as well as connoisseurs of cartography for its own sake.