This fascinating series of eleven historical world maps shows the development of European world mapping from Herodotus in 450BC through to the 'modern day' world map of 1921. The maps progress in chronological order from top-left to bottom-left, with the central world map as the 'modern' map.

Starting with a map of the Ancient World as it was known to Herodotus in 450BC, we see illustrations of maps by Strabo (18AD), Pomponius Mela (43AD), Claudius Ptolemy (150AD), Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th Century), a standard T-O world map (11th Century), the Hereford Mappa Mundi (1280AD), Abraham Ortelius's oval world map (1570), Frederick de Wit's double hemisphere world map (c.1700), and an uncredited world map of c.1800.

Of particular interest are the two diagrams explaining the worldview of Cosmas Indicopleustes, an Egyptian merchant and hermit who travelled from Alexandria to India in the 6th Century AD. Contrary to the scientific consensus of his age, he believed that the Earth was entirely flat and that the heavens resembled a casket with a curved lid. The Sun's rotation around a large, conical mountain located north of the inhabited world explained the changing of the seasons, according to his philosophy. This mountain and his model of the Earth are both illustrated to the left of the central map.

The 'modern' world map at the centre of the page uses colour to show how accurately mapped different parts of the world were in 1921, from full trigonometrical surveys to completely unmapped.

Printed colour. [WLD4896]