To the Ends of the Earth: How the Greatest Maps Were Made

by Parker, Philip

• ISBN13: 9780711282643
• ISBN10: 0711282641
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-09-19
• Publisher: HACHETTE BOOK GROUP

Summary

This lavishly illustrated book provides a unique insight into the evolution of mapmaking and the science behind it, from the stone age to the digital age. 

Britain’s leading cartographic author takes us on a historical journey through how the greatest maps were created. Exploring key cartographers and mapmaking methods, as well as fascinating interludes on subjects such as the very first maps, deliberate mistakes, and superlative maps, this comprehensive guide explores how the techniques and technology have developed throughout human history:

• Evolving methods of surveying: from the Roman groma, through the naval instruments of the magnetic compass, astrolabes and sextants, to the 20th century revolution of aerial photography 
• Drawing tools and materials: from Babylonian maps carved in clay, to digital maps created via touchscreen
• The introduction of various mapping conventions and key components of a map: from Ptolemy's introduction of longitude and latitude, through the 13th century origins of having north at the top, to the various projections used to represent the Earth.  

With visually stunning historic maps and antique instruments, this book will engross readers with its fascinating stories of how we came to chart our world.

Author Biography

Philip Parker is a writer, consultant and publisher specializing in ancient and medieval political and military systems. He studied history at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and is the author of A History of Britain in Maps (2016), the DK Eyewitness Companion Guide to World History (2010) and many more.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. When was the First Map Made?    
Candidates for the first map, from Neolithic incisings, to stone petroglyphs, the Çatal Höyuk fresco, the Nuzi map from Mesopotamia and the Babylonian map of the world. First maps from other regions – the Turin Map, Chinese maps.

2. Gathering the Information
Surveys and surveyors. Surveying instruments (e.g.the groma) from the Romans onwards. Astrolabes, sextants and dividers. Great surveying achievements from Eratosthenes to the Great Indian Trigonometrical Survey. 

3. What is the Map For?
Ideological purposes of mapping. Roman imperial mapping. Mapping in the Islamic world – religious purpose. Christian Mappae Mundi. Mapping new lands (the discovery of the Americas), maps of the nation state (the French Cassini maps), Military mapping, didactic and educational mapping, social and political planning/thematic maps.

4. Who Makes the Maps?
Key cartographers (including Ptolemy of Alexandria, Al-Khwarazmi, Matthew Paris, Pietro Vesconte, Fra Mauro, Martin Waldseemüller)

5. The Surface of the World
Surfaces for maps – clay, papyrus, parchment, vellum, paper, digital, ceramic, birchbark, cloth. Metal, stone and rock, mosaic.

6. How to Draw
Map-makers and engravers tools, from cuneiform wedges to touch-screens. Techniques – Copper Engraving, Etching, Half-tone, Electrotype, illumination, gravure, lithography, cerography, metal engraving, woodcut.

7. Atlases Unbound
Single sheets as opposed to atlases (and types of atlases).

8. Parts of a Map
A brief history of latitude and longitude lines, rhumb lines, wind roses, cartouches keys and map legends.

9. Places Which Weren’t There
Mistakes, deliberate or otherwise on maps (including Antilia, Hy Brasil, the Great Inland Sea in Australia, the North-West Passage.

10. Who Makes the Maps – Part 2
More key cartographers (including Cassini, Joan Blaeu, Van Keulen, D’Anville).

11. Finding the Way
The cartographic industry and distribution through the ages. Hubs of cartographic production, government control of cartography. Practical maps from the first pocket atlases to Google Maps.

12. Superlative Maps
The smallest, largest, most expensive, most printed maps of cartographic history.

13. Maps in Use
Six maps which have been the cause or at the centre of political/military controversy.

14. Out of this World
Maps of other planets, other worlds and the Universe.

Conclusion