I used to subscribe to the blog of the Library of Congress. It turned out to be of more of a librarian’s blog than a reader’s blog, so I dropped it. However, during the time I did read it the Library published Cartographia, a lusciously mapped coffee table book celebrating the use of maps over the course of history. But I couldn’t see paying a coffee table book price for it when it would mostly sit. Now that I have an active Seattle Public Library card, getting hold of a copy is easy. So I did.
I was both thrilled with the book and deeply unsatisfied. My dissatisfaction came from my expectations. I didn’t realize how much of a survey book this is. Nearly every map in the book makes me want to see more. More by that map-maker. More of that style. More of what’s mapped. Sadly, the book moves quickly on to the next map.
What is there is awesome! Starting with the Mediterranean world and ancient history, Vincent Virga explores the technology and uses of maps by the Eqyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as several less heralded cultures from that time. At the time, there was no way to create accurate maps on a large scale. Surveying technology was limited. Accurate time keeping was unknown, but required to determine longitude. And even more, long travel times and economics limited what people know about the world outside the Mediterranean Sea. Maps of the the world from that era either fade out at the edges, contain magic happens here
hand-waving, or are just flat-out wrong. The Indian Ocean is not an inland sea! I kinda wonder why Africa wasn’t explored better. It wasn’t until the late 1400s that the civilized world realized Africa was a contiguous continent. Perhaps navigation wasn’t up to snuff, but why didn’t anyone explore the coast via walking? They got to Asia that way.
Virga groups his sections following the geographic knowledge of history. First was the Mediterranean. Then civilization viewed the world as having three parts, Europe, Asia and Africa. Then they added the Americas. Then came Oceania. Each brings different uses for maps. Virga constantly repeats the phrase Map as &hellip
adding a descriptive ending for each cultural use. Map as Plot for Travel Book.
Map as Historical Anthropology
Most of the uses Virga describes are political uses. He focuses quite a bit on how kings, nations, and cultures used maps to dominate other kings, nations and cultures. Perhaps it’s because non-political uses (or less political) uses are a fairly recent development, or perhaps because everything has some element of politics, or perhaps some reason I am completely clueless about, but things such as mapping geology or biology or even just plain tourism get short shrift. Sometimes they are mentioned, but usually Virga makes sure to point a political effect rather than the emphasize the use.
That’s not really a knock against the book. One should know the angle is all.
The highlight of course are the 202 maps included. They are a window to other times. I love maps for giving me a sense of what is and how people view it. The maps are predominantly historical. Items not found in today’s atlases, so they are very rare for me. Some people can just sit and look at artwork for hours on end. I stared at many of these maps for hours, just absorbing the people and places that made them.
Other blogged reviews:
Title: Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations
Author: Vincent Virga
Cover creator: Map of South Africa from a secret 1630 Portuguese atlas
Imprint / publisher: Little, Brown / Hachette
Format: Hardcover
Length: 252 p.
Publication date: October 2007
ISBN-10: 0-316-99766-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-99766-9
Subject: Cartography — History
Subject: Cartography — Social aspects
LC classification: GA203.V57 2006
