Talking Maps
Talking Maps
hardback
Published:
5 July, 2019
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Description
Drawing on the Bodleian Library’s outstanding map collection and covering almost a thousand years, 'Talking Maps' takes a new approach to map-making by showing how maps and stories have always been intimately entwined. Including such rare treasures as a unique map of the Mediterranean from the eleventh-century Arabic 'Book of Curiosities', al-Sharīf al-Idrīsī’s twelfth-century world map, C.S. Lewis’s map of Narnia, J.R.R. Tolkien’s cosmology of Middle-earth and Grayson Perry’s twenty-first-century tapestry map, this fascinating book analyses maps as objects that enable us to cross sea and land; as windows into alternative and imaginary worlds; as guides to reaching the afterlife; as tools to manage cities, nations, even empires; as images of environmental change; and as digitized visions of the global future.
By telling the stories behind the artefacts and those generated by them, 'Talking Maps' reveals how each map is not just a tool for navigation but also a worldly proposal that helps us to understand who we are by describing where we are.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781851245154 |
| ISBN10 | 1851245154 |
| Number Of Pages | 208 |
| Item Weight | 1510 g |
| Publisher / Reseller | Bodleian Library |
| Format | hardback |
Media Reviews
'A book dedicated to the romantic, the beautiful, the mysterious, the intriguing and the fascinating … beautifully produced, copiously illustrated in full-colour, excellent value and a joy to behold.' * Sheetlines (The Journal of The Charles Close Society for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps) *
'The weight and size of the book promised a plethora of detail, images and various carthographic representations, and unsurprisingly I was not disappointed. … incredibly interesting and informative … an exceptional piece of literature that does well to selectively choose a range of maps and cartographies from a collection of over one and a half million. ... Brotton and Millea have done a fantastic job and have achieved their aim to celebrate the creation, function and purpose of maps, using specific examples that cover nearly two millenia.' * The Bulletin of the Society of Cartographers *
'While there is something for everyone in Talking Maps, it is not just a breezy coffee-table tome.' * IMCOS (International Map Collectors Society) *
'This is a well-designed and presented book. There are many maps spread throughout the pages and theses are discussed and analysed in a very easy to digest manner. … A very good read.’ * The Globe *
Author's Bio
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London. Nick Millea is the Map Librarian at the Bodleian Library.