Martine Laffon

Mapping the World: Stories of Geography Martine Laffon

An illustrated history of explorers' maps and the questions they answer.

More than the detailed representation of the geographical areas that their makers explored, maps reveal their makers' worldview as well as the myths, beliefs and legends of their times. By patiently creating maps, globes, charts and atlases, humans have sought to understand the universe and our place in it.

Mapping the World explores many rare and fascinating mapping artifacts, beginning with the first crude drawings and progressing to the stunning satellite views of today. Many of these examples will be unfamiliar even to serious cartographers and collectors. Thirty essays answer the questions map-makers have asked and reveal the roles their maps played in finding those answers.

Color reproductions of beautiful maps and charts include:

• A Chinese map dated to 1229 that shows the city's bridges, pagodas and gardens
• A French 15th-century interpretation of the four corners of the Earth
• A painted silk map of the universe dating from the 1830s
• A modern "inverse" world map from Australia's perspective
• The cosmos as imagined in 1750.

With 87 maps in all, Mapping the World will fascinate general readers, map collectors, geographers, cartographers and historians.