The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest Map - Hardcover

Lester, Toby

4.06

1,326 ratings by Goodreads

9781861978035: The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest Map

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1861978030 ISBN 13: 9781861978035

Publisher: Profile Books, 2009

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The Waldseem�ller Map of 1507 introduced an astonishing collection of cartological firsts. It was the first map to show the New World as a separate continent, alongside Europe, Africa and Asia - and the first on which the word 'America' appears. It was the first map to suggest the existence of the Pacific. It was, in short, the first map to depict the whole world as we know it today.

Beautiful, fascinating and revealing, it arrived on the scene as Europeans were moving out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, thanks to a tiny group of European mapmakers who pieced together ideas going back to the ancients and through Marco Polo to Vespucci. In The Fourth Part of the World, Toby Lester charts the amazing and colourful history of this map, whose profound influence has been neglected for centuries and which changed the world-view of all humankind.

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Review:

A masterpiece of cartographic literature that will be of lasting importance (Simon Winchester)

The right technology at the right time can change the world. Toby Lester has written a page-turning story of the creation of what amounts to a sixteenth century Google Earth, a revolutionary way to see the world. It inspired generations of explorers then and will inspire readers now. (Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, Editor in Chief of WIRED Magazine)

What distinguishes civilized people from barbarians? It's the map of the world they have in their minds. A barbarian's map marks the spot of just a few things: herds of sheep to steal, convenience stores to rob, political opponents to condemn on talk radio or the internet. A civilized person tries to see the world as a whole. Toby Lester's brilliant work explains how Western Europeans ceased to be a horde of pillaging bloggers and blow-hards (intellectually speaking) and became upstanding citizens (intellectually speaking) of Western Civilization. (PJ O’Rourke author of On the Wealth of Nations)

A sprightly, engrossing, and wide-ranging introduction to cartography and the celebrated Waldse�muller map. In Toby Lester's capable hands, this celebrated depiction becomes a kind of Rosetta stone for the entire Age of Discovery. (Laurence Bergreen, author of Marco Polo and Over the Edge of the World.)

The complex artistry of the beautiful German map that first identified 'America' five centuries ago provides, for a truly imaginative writer, the opportunity to tell a wonderful and exciting story. Toby Lester, seizing this opportunity, has risen to the occasion brilliantly, creating a masterpiece of cartographic literature that will be of lasting importance. (Simon Winchester, author of, most recently, The Man Who Loved China)

Brilliantly conceived and painstakingly researched, an original take on the European discovery of America. (Robert D. Kaplan, author of Balkan Ghosts and Eastward to Tartary)

A page-turning story of the creation of what amounts to a sixteenth century Google Earth ... It inspired generations of explorers then and will inspire readers now (Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail)

boundlessly engaging book...he tells the story not just of the map's creation, but pretty much the story of Europe's discovery and mapping of the entire world up to that point. (The Sunday Times 2009-10-25)

In our era of instant mapping and Google Earth, it can be hard to understand a time when people had no clear concept of the Earth on which they stood... Lester's book offers a clear survey of how people came to understand the world in which they lived. (Washington Post 2009-11-01)

By using the map as a lens through which to view a nexus of myth, imagination, technology, stupidity, and imperial ambition, Lester has penned a provocative, disarming testament to human ambition and ingenuity. (Boston Globe 2009-11-01)

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