A History of the World in 12 Maps

It is one of the great puzzles of cartographic history that hardly any world maps survive from either the Roman Republic or Empire.

Ortelius admitted, every map shows one thing, but therefore not another, and represents the world in one way, and as a consequence not in another.

The effect upon the study of mapmaking was decisive. Instead of analysing the subjective and aesthetic elements of map design, Robinson’s map communication model demanded a new account of the functional and cognitive aspects of maps. The result was an examination of mapping as a process, explaining how mapmakers collected, stored and communicated g... See more