Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (National Library of Australia)

This publication supports a major exhibition to be held at the National Library of Australia from November 2013 to March 2014. Mapping Our World will be a wonderful souvenir for those who attend the exhibition, but it is also a beautiful publication in its own right. It contains illustrations and descriptions of over 100 maps, atlases, globes and scientific instruments gathered from the National Library and international lenders such as the British Library, the Vatican Library and the Bibliotheque nationale de France. The theme of the book and the exhibition is the European idea of Australia, from ancient prophecies of a great southern land to the mapping of Australia by Matthew Flinders in 1814. The book is also a history of cartography, describing European philosophical ideas from antiquity through the medieval religious period into the Age of Discovery and the Dutch Golden Age of exploration and on to the Anglo-French rivalry symbolised by Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Boudin. Maps and charts by Ptolemy, Gerard Mercator, Louis de Freycinet, James Cook and many more, combined with detailed and informative text from a team of Australian scholars, give this excellent book great gift appeal for those with cartographic interests and a passion for Australian history.

Chris Harrington is the co-owner of Books in Print in Melbourne

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews