The 18th international conference on the history of cartography,Athens, July 1999: Report

The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought. By John Block Friedman. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000. Original edition, 1981. ISBN 0 8156 2826 9. Pp. xiii, 308, illus. US $29.95 (paper).

A Guide to English Illustrated Books, 1536–1603. By Ruth Samson Luborsky and Elizabeth Morley Ingram. Medieval &; Renaissance Texts &; Studies, vol. 166. Tempe: Arizona State University, 1998. ISBN 0 86698 207 8. Two volumes. Pp. (xxxii), (754), [iv]; (vi), (218), [150], [ii], illus. US $75.00.

The Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress: Gerardus Mercator, Atlas sive Cosmographies Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura (Duisburg, 1595). Translated from the Latin by David Sullivan, with commentary by Robert W. Karrow, Jr. Oakland, California: Octavo, 2000. ISBN 1 891788 26 4. CD‐ROM (2 discs). US $65.00. [Octavo: ; e‐mail ; Octavo Customer Service, 580 Second Street, Suite 220, Oakland, CA 94607–3543.]

The Travel Diary of Robert Bargrave, Levant Merchant 1647–1656. Edited by Michael G. Brennan. Hakluyt Society Third Series, No. 3. London: The Hakluyt Society, 1999. ISBN 0 904 180 63 8. Pp. xix, 288, illus. STG £45 (doth). [The Hakluyt Society, c/o The Map Library, British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, UK.]

California 49: Forty‐nine Maps of California from the Sixteenth Century to the Present. Edited by Warren Heckrotte and Julie Sweetkind. California Map Society Occasional Paper no. 6. San Francisco: California Map Society with the Book Club of California, 1999. ISBN 0 1 888126 01 9. Pp. 128, illus., 7 col. plates, 1 folded map. US $49.00 (doth). [Hinckle and Sons Printing Office, 2567 Fourteenth Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127.]

Mapping Cities. Catalogue and essay by Naomi Miller. Exhibition coordinated by Karen E. Haas. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press for Boston University Art Gallery, 2000. ISBN 1 881450 13 9. Pp. 92, 23 illus., 7 col. plates. US $20.00 (paper).

8. Kartographiehistorisches Colloquium Bern, 3.‐5. Oktober 1996. Vorträge und Berichte. Edited by Wolfgang Scharfe in association with the Arbeitskreis ‘Geschichte der Kartographie’ der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kartographie und der Arbeitsgruppe D‐A‐CH deutscher, österreichischer und schweizerischer Kartographiehistoriker DGfK‐ÖKK/ ÖGG‐SGK. Murten: Verlag Cartographica Helvetica, 2000. (= Cartographica Helvetica, Sonderheft Nr. 16.) ISSN 1422 3392. Pp. x, 225, illus., col. plates. DM 70.00 / SFR 55.00. [Verlag Cartographica Helvetica, Untere Längmatt 9, CH‐3280 Murten.]

The Universe Unveiled: Instruments and Images through History. By Bruce Stephenson, Marvin Bolt and Anna Felicity Friedman. Chicago and Cambridge: Alder Planetarium and Astronomy Museum and Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0 521 79143 X. Pp. 152, fflus., col. plates. US $29.95 (cloth). [Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, 1300 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605.]

Mikra'ot Gedolot ‘Haketer’: A revised and augmented scientific edition of the Mikra'ot Gedolot Based on the Aleppo Codex and Early Medieval MSS: Ezekiel. Edited by Menachem Cohen. Ramat‐Gan, Israel: Bar‐Han University Press, 2000. ISBN 965 226 230 7. Pp. xvii, 339, illus. NIS 94.80 (cloth). [Bar‐Dan University Press, Ramat‐Gan 52900 Israel].

Diercke—ein Atlas für Generationen: Hintergründe, Geschichte, und bibliographische Daten bis 1955. By Jürgen Espenhorst and Erhard Kumpel. Schwerte, Germany: Pangaea Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3 930401 50 9. Pp. 119, illus., 9 col. plates. DM 39 / Euro 20 (cloth). [Pangaea Verlag, Villigster Str. 32, 58239 Schwerte, Germany.]     

Asia in the history of cartography

The History of Cartography, Volume Two, Book One: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies. Edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1992. ISBN 0 226 31635 1. Pp xxiv, 579, 355 illus., 40 coloured plates. US$143.75 (cloth).

The History of Cartography, Volume Two, Book Two: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies. Edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward. Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1995. ISBN 0226 31637 8. Pp xxviii, 1,040, 503 illus., 40 coloured plates. US$195.00 (cloth).     

Theory and the history of cartography

Abstract

Cartographic history has been dominated by an empiricism that treats the nature of maps as self‐evident and which denies the presence of any theory. In contrast, this paper argues that theories lie at the root of all empirical study whether or not they are acknowledged. The linear, progressive model of cartographic development, for example, is not a law deduced from historical evidence; if it were it would be easily and quickly dismissed. It derives instead from our cultural beliefs concerning the nature of maps, which is to say from our unexamined theories. Historians of cartography need to be critical of their assumptions and preconceptions. Theoretical discussions in the history of cartography must address not whether we should use theory at all but to which theories we should adhere. It is inadequate simply to knock theories down. We must establish a debate in which old understandings of maps, of their creation, and of their use are replaced by better (that is, more consistent and coherent) theories.