The image of the world : 20 centuries of world maps / Peter Whitfield

Though technology has changed the tools of navigation available to us, maps are still the irreplaceable foundation of place and orientation. In this updated edition of Image of the World, map expert Peter Whitfield guides readers through a collection of some of the most extraordinary examples of maps—both visually stunning and historically revealing.

An enormous variety of maps from the last two thousand years are reproduced here in attractive, large-scale color illustrations. These fascinating and vibrant maps include Bishop Isidore of Seville’s first-century design for a circular world map, the elaborately decorated manuscript maps of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and scientific maps of worlds that are still being explored, such as the ocean floor. In addition, Whitfield examines the history of world mapmaking through these outstanding individual examples. He discusses each map in relation to the religious, political, social or economic climates in which it was produced and considers what these maps reveal about the perceptions of their makers.

Image of the World returns to print a gorgeous and informative book that will appeal to map collectors, historians, and armchair explorers alike.

“Whitfield uses a wonderful selection of world maps to explain the flow of ideas through the ages.”—Time, on the first edition

Peter Whitfield is former director of Stanfords International Map Centre in London. He is also the author of Cities of the World, New Found Lands, Astrology, The Mapping of the Heavens, The Charting of the Oceans, Landmarks in Western Science, Sir Francis Drake, and London: A Life in Maps, the last also published by the British Library.