A History of the World in 12 Maps

566 Pages·2013·36.072 MB·English

by  Jerry Brotton

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VIKING
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Published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2013

Copyright © 2012 by Jerry Brotton
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First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd.

Illustration credits appear here.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Brotton, Jerry.
A history of the world in 12 maps / Jerry Brotton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-101-63799-9
1. Historical geography--Maps. .Title.
G1030.B7 2013
911—dc23
2013028184
Version_1
5
For my wife, Charlotte
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright
List of Figures
List of Illustrations

Introduction
1 Science: Ptolemy’s Geography, c. AD 150
2 Exchange: , AD 1154
3 Faith: Hereford Mappamundi, c. 1300
4 Empire: Kangnido World Map, 1402
5 Discovery: Martin Waldseemüller, World Map, 1507
6 Globalism: Diogo Ribeiro, World Map, 1529
7 Toleration: Gerard Mercator, World Map, 1569
8 Money: Joan Blaeu, Atlas maior, 1662
9 Nation: The Cassini Family, Map of France, 1793
10 Geopolitics: Halford Mackinder, ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’, 1904
11 Equality: The Peters Projection, 1973
12 Information: Google Earth, 2012
Conclusion: The Eye of History?

Illustrations
Notes
Acknowledgements
Index
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List of Figures
1. The shield of Achilles, bronze cast designed by John Flaxman, 1824.
(Photo: The Bridgeman Art Library)
2. Reconstruction of the world map of Dicaearchus, third century BC. (Jeff
Edwards; adapted from Armando Cortesão, History of Portuguese
Cartography, 2 vols. (Coimbra, 1969–71), vol. 1, fig. 16)
3. Diagrams of Ptolemy’s first and second projections. (Jeff Edwards)
4. Map of Palestine, St Jerome, Liber locorum, twelfth century. (British
Library Add. MS 10049, fols. 64 r–v. Photo: akg-images)
5. T-O Map, from Sallust, The Jugurthine War, thirteenth-century
manuscript. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Département des
Manuscrits, Division occidentale. MS Latin 6088 , fol. 33v)
6. Drawing by John Carter, c. 1780, of the triptych containing the Hereford
map. (Copyright © British Library Board. All rights reserved. Additional
MS. 29942 , fol. 148r.)
7. Modern map of East Asia showing the regional situation in the late
fourteenth century. (Jeff Edwards; adapted from F. W. Moate, ‘China in
the Age of Columbus’, in Jay Levenson (ed.), Circa 1492: Art in the Age of
Exploration (Washington DC, 1991), p. 338)
8. Copy of Qingjun’s map of China, from a mid-fifteenth- century book by Ye
Sheng.
9. Depiction of the round heavens and square earth, from Zhang Huang,
Tushu bian, 1613. (Photo courtesy Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard
University, Cambridge)
10. ‘Yu ji tu’ (‘Map of the Tracks of Yu’), 1136. (Photo courtesy of Special
Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library)
11. ‘Hua yi tu’ (‘Map of the Chinese and Foreign Lands’), 1136. (Photo courtesy
of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library)
12. The General Survey Map of China and Non-Chinese Territories from the
Past to the Present, c. 1130. (Tōyō Bunko, Tokyo, Japan (XI-1–3))
13. Martin Waldseemüller, globe gores, 1507. (James Ford Bell Library,
University of Minnesota. Copyright © Regents of the University of
Minnesota, Twin Cities. University Libraries. All rights reserved)
14. T-O map from Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, 1472. (Ayer Collection,
Newberry Library, Chicago. Photo: The Bridgeman Art Library)
15. Detail of the eastern hemisphere of the Universalis cosmographia. (Library
of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.)
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16. Detail of the western hemisphere of the Universalis cosmographia.
(Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.)
17. Detail of America from Waldseemüller, world map, dated 1506 by Henry
N. Stevens. (John Carter Brown Library)
18. Detail of Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors, 1533. (National Gallery,
London. Photo: akg-images)
19. Lucas Cranach, ‘The Position and Borders of the Promised Land’, 1520s.
(Copyright © British Library Board, All Rights Reserved (3041.g.6))
20. Diagrams of different Renaissance map projections. (Jeff Edwards;
adapted from Norman J. W. Thrower, Maps and Civilization (Chicago,
1996), pp. 70, 74)
21. Gerard Mercator, pages from Chronologia, 1569. (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich (BSB 2H.int.67a fol. 146–7))
22. Model of a spiral loxodrome. (Jeff Edwards)
23. Willem Blaeu, world map drawn on the Mercator projection, 1606–7.
(Courtesy Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam)
24. Diagram of triangles, from Jean Picard, Le Mesure de la terre, 1671.
(Copyright © British Library Board. All rights reserved (1484.m.38))
25. ‘Carte particulière des environs de Paris’, 1678. (engr. F. de la Pointe,
1678. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Cartes et Plans, Ge DD 2987 (0788 ,
V)))
26. Jean Picard and Philippe de la Hire, Carte de France corrigée, 1693 edition.
(Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Ge. DD. 2987-777))
27. Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, ‘A Map of the country where the arc
of the meridian was measured’, The Figure of the Earth, 1738. (Photo:
ECHO/Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Munich)
28. César-François Cassini de Thury, ‘New Map of France’,
1744. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Ge. BB. 565-A). Photo: akg-
images/De Agostini)
29. Diagrams of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century map projections. (Jeff
Edwards; adapted from Norman J. W. Thrower, Maps and Civilization
(Chicago, 1996), p. 121)
30. Halford Mackinder on the summit of Mount Kenya, 1899. (The
Geographical Journal, 15, 5 (1900), p. 469 . Photo: The Royal
Geographical Society, London)
31. ‘The Land Hemisphere’, in Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas, 1907.
(H. J. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas (Clarenden Press, Oxford,
1907), p. 4 , fig. 3)
32. ‘Photograph of a Globe’, in Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas, 1907.
(H. J. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas (Clarenden Press, Oxford,
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1907), p. 5 , fig. 4)
33. Halford Mackinder, ‘The Natural Seats of Power’, world map, in
Mackinder, ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’, 1904. (H. J. Mackinder,
Britain and the British Seas (Clarenden Press, Oxford, 1907), ‘The
geographical pivot of history’, p. 435)
34. ‘A small state threatens Germany!’ Propaganda map, Germany, 1934.
35. Ethnic map of Slovakia, 1941. (Copyright © British Library Board (Maps
Y.1911, sheet 7))
36. Diagrams of twentieth-century map projections. (Jeff Edwards; adapted
from Norman J. W. Thrower, Maps and Civilization (Chicago, 1996), p.
225)
37. James Gall, ‘Gall’s Orthographic Projection’, 1885. (The Scottish
Geographical Journal, 1:4, p. 121)
38. ‘Index Map Showing Status of Publication of the International One-
millionth Map of the World’ (IMW), 1952. (World Cartography, Volume
III, copyright 1953 United Nations, New York (ST/SOA/SER. L/3).
Reprinted with the permission of the United Nations)
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