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Description : |
General Description
In 1967, an anonymous buyer purchased a
large, tattered book of maps in a second-hand bookshop in Belgium. He had
unknowingly rediscovered a priceless and long-lost early atlas produced 400
years earlier by none other than Gerardus Mercator, the German mapmaker, whose
cylindrical projection of the world revolutionized long-distance navigation, and
who pioneered the practice of cutting wall maps into book pages and binding
them. Mercator, in fact, coined the term "atlas" for such a book, and
probably produced this one for a tour of Europe undertaken by the young Crown
Prince of Cleves. His original maps are magnificently presented here, unbound in
a foil-stamped, slipcased folio of 17 superb reproductions. Labeled in Latin,
each map folds out flat to 21½" by 16", suitable for framing, and is
printed in full color to reveal the master mapmaker's green and brown hills,
sandy coastlines, and red cities and towns. The 17 replica maps are accompanied
by an in-depth companion book, featuring essays by an international team of map
scholars. This volume relates the historical significance of Mercator's atlas
and how it influenced the politics and science of the day. It also examines the
work of later cartographers, in more than 100 original-color illustrations. A
must-have for collectors, this elegant edition combines the high art of
antiquarian maps with exceptional scholarly analysis.
Published by Walking Tree Press, 2000. Softcover book and 17 loose maps in
clothbound folio cover with cardboard slipcase. Approximate dimensions: 11 x 16
1/2 in. 94 pages
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