English Maps: A History

What’s in a map? An awful lot, as we all know: invaluable historical information and intellectual constructs of the mapmaker are just two almost incidental by‐products of old maps. A lot depends, of course, on the ostensible purpose of the map, in the view of its cartographer, publisher or sponsor. In interpreting a map as an original intellectual and/or graphical statement – as opposed to mining it for subsequent antiquarian or scholarly evidence – its original purpose is paramount. It is on that aspect of cartographic history that this new volume concentrates.

All these aspects are discussed directly and immediately in the fascinating introduction to a book which, intended as a single‐volume introductory account of English maps, adopts “the revisionist perspectives of the ‘new’ history of cartography” and examines not just the antiquarian history of maps, but more especially discusses them in their economic, social and cultural contexts. Why were they made at all? Exactly who made them? Why were they made like that? The answers range from the theological (mappae mundi) to the economic and political. Powerful interests (the Church, landowners, the State) often lie behind the production of a map. Some maps would be disarmingly simple in purpose (this small defined piece of land is mine/ours); or, where mapping was to cover a whole county or large areas, considerable investment was involved and the returns were not always intended to be financial.

Within that overall context the arrangement of the book looks otherwise conventional enough: “A mediaeval flowering”, “Mapping country and county”, “Mapping property: private land and the state”, “Maps and travel”, “Mapping towns”, “The spirit of modernity: maps in everyday life”, and “The lottery of map survival”. Amidst the contextual discussion there is all the hard fact one would wish for, detailed notes and references, an extensive bibliography, and a thorough index. There are plenty of illustrations (including 26 colour plates), all selected for their relevance to the discussion and integrated fully with their texts.

So, for those who want to know about the “what” in the history of English maps, it is all here. But it is taken much farther than that and the fascinating “who” and “why” are eruditely and consistently analysed in their contemporary contexts. We have, indeed, a new standard survey of English maps (and mapping – the distinction is significant), and beyond that also a fascinating and accessible historical analysis.