The World Map, 1300-1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation

In the two centuries before Columbus, mapmaking was transformed. The World Map, 1300-1492 investigates this important, transitional period of mapmaking. Beginning with a 1436 atlas of ten maps produced by Venetian Andrea Bianco, Evelyn Edson uses maps of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to examine how the discoveries of missionaries and merchants affected the content and configuration of world maps.

She finds that both the makers and users of maps struggled with changes brought about by technological innovation--the compass, quadrant, and astrolabe--rediscovery of classical mapmaking approaches, and increased travel. To reconcile the tensions between the conservative and progressive worldviews, mapmakers used a careful blend of the old and the new to depict a world that was changing--and growing--before their eyes.

This engaging and informative study reveals how the ingenuity, creativity, and adaptability of these craftsmen helped pave the way for an age of discovery.

Author: Evelyn Edson
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 07/01/2007
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.39h x 6.62w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780801885891

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2007 pg. 78

About the Author

Evelyn Edson recently retired as professor of history at Piedmont Virginia Community College. She is the author of Mapping Time and Space: How Medieval Mapmakers Viewed Their World.

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