Customer Reviews

Facsimile-Atlas to the Early History of Cartography With Reproductions of the Most Important Maps Printed in the XV and XVI Centuries

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...because they make gems like this available.

This is an over-sized (tall folio), 3 pound, reprint of the English edition of Nordenskiold's Facsimile-Atlas of 1889.

Nordenskiold, an adventurer, scholar, and celebrity in those last years of voyage and discovery, pulled together this book which has been hailed as "the first systematic approach to the history of cartography." Here's some more from the blurb...

The book reproduces "169 of the most important and characteristic maps printed before 1600. These include maps from early printed editions of Ptolemy...the earliest maps of the New World, the map of the world found among Leonardo da Vinci's papers, maps from Lafreri's atlas, and the 1597 work of Wytfliet...." Also included are works from Ruysch, Olamus Magnus, Apianus, Gastaldi, Ortelius, and Mercator.

"Nordenskiold's lucid, precise, and informative text is supplemented by exhaustive catalogues of all known printed maps."

Notably, Dover's reprint of this book retains the two page spreads of maps that were, for the most part, reproduced in their original size. 84 smaller map illustrations in the book are reduced as in Nordednskiold's original edition.

With a new introduction by J.B. Post.

The quality of image here isn't going to make you drool and it is all b&w, but still -- all of this content in a well-constructed trade paperback at a bargain price.