The Shape Of The World: The Mapping And Discovery Of The Earth
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Long before satellites and GPS, humanity's greatest minds strained against the limits of the known world, armed with little more than curiosity, mathematics, and an insatiable desire to chart the unknown — and The Shape of the World: The Mapping and Discovery of the Earth is the definitive chronicle of that extraordinary endeavour. Written as the companion volume to the acclaimed Granada Television series, Simon Berthon and Andrew Robinson present a sweeping narrative that traces the history of cartography from the ancient world to the modern age, detailing how explorers, astronomers, and geographers gradually uncovered the true form of our planet through courage, ingenuity, and occasional catastrophic error. The work stands as a rich intersection of science, art, and adventure, illustrating how maps are far more than navigational tools — they are cultural artefacts that reveal how civilisations understood their place in the cosmos. Berthon and Robinson write with authority and clarity, weaving together biographical portraits of landmark figures — from Ptolemy to Mercator to Cook — with broader intellectual history, producing a narrative that is as visually evocative as it is intellectually rigorous. For anyone who has ever gazed at a map and wondered how it came to be, this volume poses an irresistible question: what does it truly mean to know the shape of the world?
Author: Simon Berthon & Andrew Robinson
Format: Hardback
Published: 1991, Guild
Genre: Geography & Earth science
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Long before satellites and GPS, humanity's greatest minds strained against the limits of the known world, armed with little more than curiosity, mathematics, and an insatiable desire to chart the unknown — and The Shape of the World: The Mapping and Discovery of the Earth is the definitive chronicle of that extraordinary endeavour. Written as the companion volume to the acclaimed Granada Television series, Simon Berthon and Andrew Robinson present a sweeping narrative that traces the history of cartography from the ancient world to the modern age, detailing how explorers, astronomers, and geographers gradually uncovered the true form of our planet through courage, ingenuity, and occasional catastrophic error. The work stands as a rich intersection of science, art, and adventure, illustrating how maps are far more than navigational tools — they are cultural artefacts that reveal how civilisations understood their place in the cosmos. Berthon and Robinson write with authority and clarity, weaving together biographical portraits of landmark figures — from Ptolemy to Mercator to Cook — with broader intellectual history, producing a narrative that is as visually evocative as it is intellectually rigorous. For anyone who has ever gazed at a map and wondered how it came to be, this volume poses an irresistible question: what does it truly mean to know the shape of the world?