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Product Description
Review
… as much as a labour of love as a book. This collection of maps from 'the Age of Discovery' is staggeringly beautiful.' Good Book Guide
Product Description
Take a journey into the past, to a world where exotic beasts and even stranger locals stalk cartographic voids, where sea monsters and floating islands lurk beyond uncertain shores, where the borders between myth and reality are blurred. Here, gathered from five centuries of exploration, are over 200 maps of oceans and continents, mountains and forests, cities and shires. Presented in chronological order, these maps record the adventures and discoveries - not to mention fantasies and outright lies - of explorers, merchants and travelers. Taken together, they chart our discovery of the world as science, legend, politics and art are blended together by the cartographer's craft. Presenting an illustrated history of the Age of Discovery, New Worlds displays our finest maps and tells the stories of the explorers, rulers, scientists, artists and charlatans who created them.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Many High Street bookshops are displaying this book with a £50 price-tag, 'reduced for a limited period to £25', so Amazon's price is particularly attractive.
Warning: this book is tall and wide, so you'll be struggling to find a slot for it on your usual bookshelf. The antiquarian maps are wonderfully reproduced, and occupy nearly all of each large-format page.
To me, it's extraordinary how early that mankind seemed to have a pretty accurate view of the shape of the continents of the world. Later come the more figurative maps -- of matrimony, and of cartoon figures in the shape of Britain and continental Europe.
If you make maps, diagrams or charts yourself, there are plenty of inspiring ideas here for your next Powerpoint presentation.
Warning: this book is tall and wide, so you'll be struggling to find a slot for it on your usual bookshelf. The antiquarian maps are wonderfully reproduced, and occupy nearly all of each large-format page.
To me, it's extraordinary how early that mankind seemed to have a pretty accurate view of the shape of the continents of the world. Later come the more figurative maps -- of matrimony, and of cartoon figures in the shape of Britain and continental Europe.
If you make maps, diagrams or charts yourself, there are plenty of inspiring ideas here for your next Powerpoint presentation.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Brilliantly illustrated with a good range of unusual printed maps from 1475 to 1899. The history of maps has always fascinated and never more so than in this lavish new book. Ashley and Miles Baynton-Williams have combined scholarly knowledge with an ease of language that makes it a joy to read.
Thoroughly recommended to all antiquarian map enthusiasts.
Thoroughly recommended to all antiquarian map enthusiasts.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
After some pretty heavy hints, I received this fantastic coffee-table book from my wife. The book hasn't disappointed, its a great collection for anyone interested in world history or geography, very worthwhile to dip into for a good browse every so often.
The collection begins with the 'mappaemundi' of the medieval era, strange unscientific depictions of the world that bear little resemblence to geographic reality, through to the earliest semi-accurate depictions of Europe and the rest of the world, taking us through the age of European discoveries and into the era of colonialism. Each map is contextualised in its proper historical setting and a wealth of information is offered into the process of exploration and cartography. It's not all world maps and capital cities: a rare map depicting the battle of Pinkie Cleugh shows the first post-medieval battle in the British Isles and a pair of Spanish plates display the Aztec and Inca capitals in all their glory. There are a few interesting oddities thrown in the collection as well, such as Holland depicted as a roaring lion. Early maps display many fantastical features and much heraldic pagentry, but as we move through the ages the maps become more scientific and precise as spaces marked 'cave! hic draconnis!' are slowly mapped measured and cataloged. Whereas the earliest maps seem to be designed to evoke awe and display status, the later examples are clearly the tools of administrators and imperialists. Ominously, the collection concludes on a comic map-parody of late C19th European geopolitics...
More than simply a folio of maps, this is a cartographic record of the changing European relationship with the wider world: from curiosity to control. An excellent accompaniment to any good work on the early modern era and the age of empire. My only criticism is that we see little of how the non-Western world depicted their own civilisations and the rest of the Earth. But perhaps this would deserve a separate volume.
The collection begins with the 'mappaemundi' of the medieval era, strange unscientific depictions of the world that bear little resemblence to geographic reality, through to the earliest semi-accurate depictions of Europe and the rest of the world, taking us through the age of European discoveries and into the era of colonialism. Each map is contextualised in its proper historical setting and a wealth of information is offered into the process of exploration and cartography. It's not all world maps and capital cities: a rare map depicting the battle of Pinkie Cleugh shows the first post-medieval battle in the British Isles and a pair of Spanish plates display the Aztec and Inca capitals in all their glory. There are a few interesting oddities thrown in the collection as well, such as Holland depicted as a roaring lion. Early maps display many fantastical features and much heraldic pagentry, but as we move through the ages the maps become more scientific and precise as spaces marked 'cave! hic draconnis!' are slowly mapped measured and cataloged. Whereas the earliest maps seem to be designed to evoke awe and display status, the later examples are clearly the tools of administrators and imperialists. Ominously, the collection concludes on a comic map-parody of late C19th European geopolitics...
More than simply a folio of maps, this is a cartographic record of the changing European relationship with the wider world: from curiosity to control. An excellent accompaniment to any good work on the early modern era and the age of empire. My only criticism is that we see little of how the non-Western world depicted their own civilisations and the rest of the Earth. But perhaps this would deserve a separate volume.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Poor Quality Item
I expected a used copy of my book when i ordered but not a ripped battered and broken one. The sleeve is ripped, cover bent and dented, the spine bent and pages stuck together. Read more
Published 13 months ago by TSF
Maps as Works of Art
It is difficult to write my review of this book because the volume is so large: it barely fits on my desk. And it's a weighty tome too: its quality cannot be faulted. Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2009 by Nicholas Casley
Fabulous Book
Very impressive book - perfect for anybody who has an interest in antiquarian maps or geography. A great collection of maps shown in the book with intelligent and informative... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2006 by tiara queen
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