Charles Bricker

Elephant Folio with over 350 illustrations and beautiful maps, many of which are fold-out colored plates. As Robert Herrick notes in the epilog quote, one can travel at the lowest price -- by exploring brilliant maps!

A hear thrice wall'd with Oke, and Brasse, that man
Had, first, durst plow the Ocean.
But thou at home without or tyde or gale,
Canst in thy Map securely saile:
Seeing those painted Countries; and so guesse
By those fine Shades, their Substances :
And from thy Compasse taking small advice,
Buy'st Travell at the lowest price. -- Robert Herrick

The leaf of the dustcover explains: "This spectacular survey of maps and their creators spans more than 2, 000 years, from the primitive palm fiber sea charts fashioned by the Marshall Islanders to our modern statistical maps. As the story unfolds, we see how much we owe the cartographers of previous ages who painstakingly assembled the puzzle of the earth's shape, bit by little but. Their striking maps are included here--maps that stand as works of art in their own right. "… (más)