Von der Buchrückseite:
“Maps fascinate us. They chart our understanding of the world and they log our progress, but above all they tell our stories.
From the early sketches of philosophers and explorers through to Google Maps and beyond, Simon Garfield examines how maps both relate and realign our history. His compelling narratives range from the quest to create the perfect globe to the challenges of mapping Africa and Antarctica, from spellbinding treasure maps to the naming of America, from Ordnance Survey to Monopoly and Skyrim, and from rare map dealers to cartographic frauds.
En route, there are ‘pocket map’ tales of dragons and undergrounds, a nineteenth century murder map, research on the different ways that men and women approach a map, and an explanation of the curious long-term cartographic role played by animals.
On the Map is a witty and irrepressible exploration of where we’ve been, how we got there and where we’re going.”
Für unser Projekt könnten darin einige interessante Hintergrundinformationen zur Kartographiegeschichte enthalten sein. Hier einige der 22 Kapitel des Buches von Simon Garfield:
– Kapitel 3: The World Takes Shape, 63-74. The world centres on Jerusalem – and the Poles appear.
– Kapitel 4: Venice, China and a Trip to the Moon, 75-86. How the Italians became the world’s greatest map makers, and then the Germans, and then the Dutch. And how a Venetian friar discovered the secrets of the East and ended up on the Moon.
– Kapitel 6: Welcome to Amerigo, 103-124. In which Ptolemy reappears in Europe and America gets named after the wrong man.
– Kapitel 7: What’s the Good of Mercator, 125-139. How the wolrd looked in 1569 – and today, even if the UN still favours the Postel Azimuthal Equidistant.
– Kapitel 8: The World in a Book, 140-166. In which the Atlas becomes a craze in seventeenth-century Holland, is adopted by The Times, and then turns to agit-prop.
– Kapitel 9: Mapping a Cittee (without forder troble), 167-180. London gets the map bug, too, pioneers street mapping, and John Ogilby charts the course of every major road in Britannia.
– Kapitel 16: Maps in All Our Hands: A Brief History of the Guidebook, 297-312. The majestic fold-out engravings of Murray and Baedeker give way to another cartographic dark age.