Atlas: A World of Maps from the The British Library (new edition): A World of Maps from the British Library - Softcover

Tom Harper

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712353321 ISBN 13: 9780712353328

Publisher: British Library Publishing, 2020

Synopsis

Originally published in hardback, Atlas: A World of Maps from the British Library is now available in paperback.

This is an atlas with a difference. Few of the maps in this book could reasonably be called accurate in the modern sense and could almost certainly not be used to plan a journey. Yet this atlas can help us to travel in a way that regular atlases do not, because by looking at old maps and getting to know their stories we can be transported back to the times in which they were made.

About this title

About the Author

Tom Harper is Lead Curator of Antiquarian Maps at the British Library. His publications include the British Library exhibition catalogue Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line, and A History of the Twentieth Century in 100 Maps, which he co-authored in 2014.

From the Back Cover

From the publication in 1595 of the first atlas by Flemish cartographer Gerhard Mercator, the term has become a universally adopted title for books containing accurate, uniform, and evenly spread maps of all or some of the world.

This is an atlas with a difference. Few of the maps in this book could reasonably be called accurate in the modern sense and could almost certainly not be used to plan a journey.
Yet this atlas can help us to travel in a way that regular atlases do not, because by looking at old maps and getting to know their stories we can be transported back to the times in which they were made.

The generous, full-colour illustrations of each map in this book range from the Klencke Atlas to Hokusai's Map of China, from a 1682 pirate map of Guatemala to 20th-century cartographic postcards featuring maps of Australia. Atlas is the definitive printed showcase of the British Library's extensive and unparalleled map collection.

Edition details

• Publisher: British Library Publishing
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0712353321
• ISBN 13: 9780712353328
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272