The Story of Maps

Early map making was characterized by secrecy. Maps were precious documents, drawn by astrologers and travelers, worn out through use or purposely destroyed. Just as men first mapped the earth indirectly, via the sun and stars, so must the history of maps be approahced circuitously, through chronicles, astronomy, Strabo and Ptolemy, seamanship, commerce, politics. From the first determinations of latitude 2000 years ago through the dramatic unraveling of longitude 1700 years later, the story of maps plots the course of civilization. "The Story of Maps, " first published thirty years ago, charts that course with a breadth and depth still unsurpassed in a scholarly survey.