A cartographic anthology that examines verticality in mapping from ancient Iraq to the twenty-first century. In these colorful pages, mountains and molehills bubble up in relief maps of Imperial Roman highways and Leonardo's Tuscany, while the dramatic contours of the Grand Canyon are captured in exquisitely accurate, eye-popping 3-D, courtesy of the futuristic Ambroziak Infinite Perspective Projection.

 

Whether from military necessity or unbridled curiosity, mapmakers since early antiquity have attempted to represent the configuration of the land about them. The Greeks paid homage to the landscape and struck its image on their coins. Medieval scholars viewed the highest elevations as a boundary between the physical and the spiritual; the images they created of their sacred shrines and historic sites were drawn atop simple caricatures of mountains. Leonardo da Vincis maps of Tuscany and other more realistic representations of landforms appeared during the Renaissance, thanks to a wealth of scientific study and new artistic methods.

 

In the modern era, new techniques were invented as attempts to portray the three-dimensional world on a flat surface became more sophisticated. Hachuring, a system that involves shading with fine parallel or crossed lines, was developed with the use of copper plates; contour lines slowly replaced this technique in the nineteenth century. Lithography allowed for the introduction of color to the printing process, and multi-color tints were used to impart a sense of elevation. Aerial and satellite photography and the dawn of the digital era have yielded maps of unprecedented realism; today's computer technology allows planetary surfaces to be portrayed in three dimensions with a precision unimaginable to previous generations of mapmakers.

Included are maps of Yosemite, Mount St Helens, San Francisco, Mount Everest, Yellowstone National Park, Vesuvius, Switzerland, Wyoming, Mars, the Grand Canyon, and Mount McKinley, the Alps both recent and ancient, as well as one large fold-out map; the necessary 3D viewing glasses are also provided.

 

Extra large format hardcover, 16"x12", extra postage required for Priority Mail or International Mail. Hardcover book is used, VG-Fine condition with Dust Jacket.