Imagined Corners: Exploring the World's First Atlas

by Paul Binding

Hardcover, 2003

Collection

Personal Print Library

Language

English

Publication

Headline Book Publishing (2003), 320 pages

Description

Published in Antwerp in 1570, the Theatrum orbis terrarum did something no previous book had done--it presented the world in all its component parts, offering the chance to see our planet as a place of staggering variety and ultimate unity. It was the world’s first atlas. Brainchild of Abraham Ortelius, the Theatrum reflected the enormous vitality of the era, the prevailing zest for exploration and discovery, and the linked activities of international commerce and mapmaking. Paul Binding has immersed himself in the Antwerp that produced Ortelius and his atlas, and he draws on a mass of letters, personal documents, maps, and pictures to bring it vividly to life. A masterly volume that stands as a tribute to the human need to impose order and reason on an all-too-turbulent world.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Gantois

An interesting study on and reconstruction of the life of Abraham Ortelius, an important mapmaker in the 16th century. He lived in Antwerp and became famous for making the most beautiful maps of his time. He was a contemporary of Mercator and a humanist who struggled to survive in a time of

inquisition.
The book is not as well written as the Nioolas Crane book about Marcator. However the author writes with passion on his subject and that compensates a lot.

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LibraryThing member Lukerik

This is a beautifully produced book and a first edition, but these are the best things about it. There is a lot of information about obscure people living in an obscure place which is all very interesting but Binding fails to really inspire me. There's something a little bit 'off' about his tone.

It's like he's lecturing to himself. He also rambles and strays into subjects that have no connection with the thread of the book. And at the end he commits the cardinal sin of becoming emotional. You can actually hear his voice shaking. Embarrassingly he goes on about Erasmus' Praise of Folly for a few pages and then says that if the kinship between it and Ortelius isn't immediately apparent 'this book will have been written to no purpose'. Oh dear!

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LibraryThing member Mapguy314

The story of Alexander Ortelius and the creation of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the world's first published Atlas.

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