PETER WHITFIELD - New Found Lands. Maps in the History of Exploration

London, England, The British Library, 1998. First Edition, Binding: Cloth, Very Good/Fine/Very Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall 0712345574 Hardback In this book the author concentrates on the intellectual context of exploration. How did the explorers and their patrons understand their expanding world and their place in it? What were they really seeking, and how did they believe they could achieve it? How did they balance the known and the unknown in their minds? Historical maps are vitally important in answering these questions, and this book displays the geographical ideas of the explorers themselves, through the maps that they used or the new maps which they caused to be made. The power that came with increasing technical and geographical knowledge is made plain by the European empires that grew out of conquest, annexation and exploitation. Many maps are a potent symbol of that power. But equally there are maps - which to our eyes seem misleading, inaccurate and highly imaginative - which serve as evocative and poignant reminders of the gaps in peoples' knowledge. Up until very recent times, as maps show, there have been areas of the world remaining to be explored and 'new found lands' to discover. With 150 illustrations, 100 in colour. Illustrated. Slight shelf wear to edges of D/J.