Map History Books of 2023
/2023 Books in Map History, plus Some from 2021 and 2022 Previously Missed
It’s time for the annual list; I doubt if I’ll see any more before the end of the year, so here it is. Previous annual lists are from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017.
As ever, inclusion in this list does not mean that I’ve actually seen the book. I do have many of the following, and the Osher Map Library has many more, but some I still know only from library catalogs or from amazon.com. Similarly, inclusion is not a sign of approbation; I’m just presenting the titles that I have encountered.
Note: for the most part, I generally include books according to their US publication date.
Do I have any favorites from this year’s haul? It’s a bit of a grab bag, as ever, given the sheer breadth of this field, and there are many excellent works. I can say that the book that hit me hard, right in the solar plexus, making me think in new ways, was Michelle Wang’s The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China. And I just received an email this morning from Mario Cams, indicating that his and Elke Papelitzky’s wonderful Remapping the World in East Asia is rolling off the presses, so I’m including it in this list; they kindly asked me to provide the postscript to this volume, and it’s so good.
Have fun reading!
Alexander, Isabella. 2023. Copyright and Cartography: History, Law, and the Circulation of Geographical Knowledge. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Open access: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/74780
Almeida, Bruno. 2022. A carta de navegar: Antologia de textos, 1464–1599. Lisbon: Althum.
Anonymous. 2023. “Open kaart.” De Boekenwereld 39, no. 3. [Essays in conjunction with Reinder Storm’s great exhibition, Open Kaart/Maps Unfolded, at Allard Pearson Museum, University of Amsterdam.]
Beck, Lauren, ED. 2023. “The Social Lives of Maps.” Vol. 3. Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle 95: 1–132.
Bellerby, Peter. 2023. The Globemakers: The Curious Story of an Ancient Art. London: Bloomsbury.
Benus, Benjamin. 2023. Herbert Bayer’s World Geo-Graphic Atlas and Information Design at Midcentury. Rochester, NY: RIT Press. [I listed this in 2021, when it was first advertised as being due, but it was so delayed by covid-19 that I’m listing it again]
Berman, Jake. 2023. The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Blaakman, Michael A. 2023. Speculation Nation: Land Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Black, Jeremy. 2023. Mapping World War II: A Cartographic History of the World’s Largest Conflict. London: Osprey.
Caddeo, Renzo, and Athanase Papadopoulos, eds. 2022. Mathematical Geography in the Eighteenth Century: Euler, Lagrange and Lambert. Cham, Switz.: Springer Nature.
Camerota, Filippo. 2023. Una terra oltre le stelle. Il planisfero di Martin Waldseemüller. Florence: Giunti.
Cams, Mario, and Elke Papelitzky, eds. 2024. Remapping the World in East Asia: Toward a Global History of the ‘Ricci Maps.’ Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. [See intro, above]
Chen, Shanshan. 2023. Art, Science, and Diplomacy: A Study of the Visual Images of the Macartney Embassy to China, 1793. Singapore: Springer. [Includes at least one chapter re maps (maybe three)]
Cintra, Jorge Pimentel. 2022. Terrotórios em disputa. Coleção Museu do Ipiranga 2022: 7. São Paolo: Museu Paullista da USP.
Dai Prà, Elena, and Valentina De Santi. 2023. L’occhio militare sul paesaggio: Il Trentino dei topografi napoleonici (1796–1813). Milan: Unicopli.
Dammen, Finn, and Boris Michel, eds. 2022. Handbuch kritisches Kartieren. Bielefeld: transcript.
De Maeyer, Philippe, Michèle Galand, Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, and Guy Vanthemsche. 2021. De geschiedenis van België in 100 oude kaarten. Tielt: Lannoo. Also published as L’histoire de la Belgique en 100 cartes anciennes (Bruxelles: Racine).
Demhardt, Imre Josef, ed. 2021. Mapping the Ottoman Realm: Travelers, Cartographers and Archaeologists: 8th International Symposium of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography. Proceedings of the ICA, 3. [online at https://www.proc-int-cartogr-assoc.net/3/]
Easum, Taylor. 2023. Chiang Mai between Empire and Modern Thailand: A City in the Colonial Margins. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Favelukes, Graciela. 2021. El plano de la ciudad: Formas y culturas técnicas en la modernización temprana de Buenos Aires (1750-1870). Buenos Aires: Serie Tesis del IAA, Instituto de Arte Americano, Universidad de Buenos Aires. [Available from http://www.iaa.fadu.uba.ar/omp/index.php/iaa/catalog/book/tesis10]
Field, Kenneth. 2022. Thematic Mapping: 101 Inspiring Ways to Visualise Empirical Data. Redlands, CA: Esri Press. [Follows an historical approach; has gallery of exemplary analytic maps]
Francaviglia, Richard V. 2023. Cinematic Journeys in Latin America: Geography through the Lens of Exploration and Discovery Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.
Gaspar, Joaquim Alves, and Šima Krtalić. 2023. A cartografia de Magalhães, The Cartography of Magellan. Lisbon: tradisom.
Hannam, James. 2023. The Globe: How the Earth Became Round. London: Reaktion Books.
Hernando, Agustín. 2022. La imagen cartográfica de Aragón a lo largo de la historia. Barcelona: Cortes de Aragón.
Horner, A. A. 2023. Mapping South Kerry: 450 Years of Maps and Changing Landscape. Dublin: Wordwell.
Jeske, Martin. 2023. Ein Imperium wird vermessen: Kartographie, Kulturtransfer und Raumerschließung im Zarenreich (1797–1919). Berlin: De Gruyter. Open access: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/63491
Kaida, Toshikazu. 2022. World Maps Published in Tokugawa Japan: An Illustrated Catalog. Tokyo: Arsmedica. [Order from arsmed2001@yahoo.co.jp]
Klingelhofer, Eric, ed. 2023. Excavating the Lost Colony Mystery: The Map, the Search, the Discovery. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Knubben, Thomas. 2023. Tobias Mayer, oder die Vermessung der Erde, des Meeres und des Himmels. Stuttgart: S. Hirzel Verlag.
Kobiela, Olivia. 2022. ÄsthEthik der Fremde des Herzog Ernst B: Die Kartographie des 12./13. Jahrhunderts als ästhEthisches Reflexionsmedium der mittelalterlichen Literatur. Leiden: Brill.
Lange, Diana, and Oliver Hahn. 2023. Colours on East Asian Maps: Their Use and Materiality in China, Japan and Korea between the Mid-17th and Early 20th Century. Leiden: Brill. Open access: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/files/56968/Lange_Hahn_Asian_Maps.pdf
Lange, Diana, and Benjamin van der Linde. 2023. Maps and Colours: A Complex Relationship. Leiden: Brill.
Leo Africanus, Johannes [al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan]. 2023. The Cosmography and Geography of Africa. Trans. Anthony Ossa-Richardson and Richard J. Oosterhoff. London: Penguin Books.
Lévesque-St-Louis, Jérémie. 2023. Retracer le territoire, tracer le pays: L’arpenteur général Joseph Bouchette, 1791–1840. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval.
Lois, Carla. 2023. Sketch Maps: Drawing the Geographical Imagination. Leiden: Brill.
Manfrè, Valeria. 2023. Isole e città del Mediterraneo: Immagini cartografiche e ingegneri in Sardegna e Sicilia nel Settecento. Palermo: Edizioni Caracol.
Maruo-Schröder, Nicole, Sarah Schäfer-Althaus, and Uta Schaffers. 2023. Traveling Bodies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Traveling as an Embodied Practice. London: Taylor and Francis.
Mauntel, Christoph. 2022. Die Erdteile in der Weltordnung des Mittelalters: Asien–Europa–Afrika. Monographien zur Gechichte des Mittelalters. Stuttgart: Hiersemann.
Mendillo, Michael. 2022. Saints and Sinners in the Sky: Astronomy, Religion and Art in Western Culture. Cham, Switz.: Springer Nature.
Moon, Paul. 2023. A Draught of the South Land: Mapping New Zealand from Tasman to Cook. London: Lutterworth Press.
Nadal, Francesc, and Carme Montaner. 2023. Arquitectes-Cartògrafs: Els mapes del fons de la Llotja (1815–1896). Barcelona: Arxiu Gràfic de l’Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona.
Negri, Mario. 2023. Cosmographica: Note edite e inedite di storia della navigazione e di cosmografia nautica. Bologna: Edizioni dell’Orso.
Parker, Philip. 2023. To the Ends of the Earth: How the Greatest Maps Were Made. London: Ivy Press.
Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco, and Francesco Cavallaro. 2023. Place Names: Approaches and Perspectives in Toponymy and Toponomastics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Poli, Daniela, ed. 2023. Lo sguardo territorialista di Leonardo: Il cartografo, l'ingegnere idraulico, il progettista di città e territory. Florence: Firenze University Press.
Renkema, Wim, Marc Hameleers, and Peter van der Krogt. 2023. Polderkaarten: De gedrukte kaarten van waterschappen en polders tot 1870. Explokart Studies in the History of Cartography, 22. Leiden: Brill.
Rietzler, Elischa Matthias. 2023. Planung mit dem Rotstift: Die räumliche Logik infrastruktureller Pkanung Augsburger Stadtplanungsgeschichte, 1920–1960. Augsburg: Universität Augsburg.
Schoonderbeek, Marc. 2023. Mapping in Architectural Discourse: Place-Time Discontinuities.: London.
Schulz-Dornburg, Ursula, and Martin Zimmerman. 2021. The Division of the World: On Archives, Empires and the Vanity of Borders. Trans. Henry Heitmann-Gordon. London: Haus.
Seville, Adrian, Thierry Depaulis, and Geert H. Bekkering. 2023. Playing with Maps: Cartographic Games in Western Culture. Leiden: Brill.
Sievers, Alexander. 2023. Die Ökonomisierung der Kartografie: Kartenhandel im 19. Jahrhundert in Deutschland. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Simpson, Thomas. 2021. The Frontier in British India: Space, Science, and Power in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Small, Meredith F. 2023. Here Begins the Dark Sea: Venice, a Medieval Monk, and the Creation of the Most Accurate Map of the World. New York: Pegasus Books.
Sparrow, Giles. 2022. Phenomena: Doppelmayr’s Celestial Atlas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Stocchi, Fabio, and Lucia Masotti. 2023. Itinerari di Smeraldi: Rappresentazione e governo del territorio nell’opera di un cartografo farnesiano (1580–1634). Verona: Cierre edizioni.
Trethewey, Laura. 2023. The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World’s Oceans. New York: HarperCollins.
Trudel, Claude. 2023. “Atlas du Québec en Amérique et dans le monde: Cartes et plans géographiques et historiques du 16e siècle à nos jours.” Le mond en images (CCDMD: Centre collégial de développement de matériel didactique, collège de Maisonneuve). https://monde.ccdmd.qc.ca/ressource/?id=137859.
Van Duzer, Chet. 2023. Frames that Speak: Cartouches on Early Modern Maps. Leiden: Brill.
Vannieuwenhuyze, Bram, Marissa Griffioen, and Anne-Rieke van Schaik. 2023. Oude kaarten lezen: Handboek voor historische cartografie. Zwolle: W Books.
Wang, Michelle H. 2023. The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Welfare, Humphrey. 2022. General William Roy, 1726–1790: Father of the Ordnance Survey. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Williams, Christy. 2021. Mapping Fairy-Tale Space: Pastiche and Metafiction in Borderless Tales. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Zenobi, Luca. 2023. Borders and the Politics of Space in Late Medieval Italy: Milan, Venice, and Their Territories. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
