Charting the Actual and Imagined - the History of Cartograph

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In May of 1977, geographers Brian Harley and David Woodward were strolling through the English countryside, discussing a collaboration on the mapping of North America. But as they walked and talked, they began to plan a work of even greater scope-a comprehensive history of worldwide mapping from prehistoric times to our century.

Under their joint editorship, two volumes of The History of Cartography are now in print, with at least four more to come. Their international team of scholars has already appraised for us an extraordinary range of cartographic artifacts, from Neolithic wall paintings to the globes, maps, and diagrams of the ancient Mediterranean and medieval European …