Map: Exploring The World brings together a curated selection of 300 maps that celebrate humans’ efforts to understand the world around them through the ages. This visually engaging compilation highlights the widespread presence of maps in our lives and the many reasons that people create them, from finding their way to staking a claim to ownership and scientific or social investigation.

Selected by an international panel of cartographers, academics and map dealers and collectors, this book features some of the greatest masterpieces from the history of cartography, such as the first map to name America from 1507 and Marie Tharp’s groundbreaking panorama of the ocean floor in the 1970s, as well as surprising and less familiar works. Rather than following a thematic or chronological arrangement, thoughtfully curated pairings reveal the huge variety and the often unexpected similarities of the cartographer’s art through time and around the world.

Comprehensive in scope, Map: Exploring The World also features useful reference information to guide the reader through the story of cartography, including biographies of selected cartographers and an illustrated timeline detailing significant events in mapmaking, exploration and related historical events. Each map is accompanied by a concise, explanatory text written by leading international map experts, curators and cartographers to help the reader understand the historical importance of the work and its significance.