Challenges of Mapping the Classical World - Hardcover

"The volume, which comes at a time when research on the reception of ancient geography between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries creates a growing space, will be of great use to scholars of the history of cartography, of the history of classical studies and to anyone who wants to understand better what it really means to design the map of a world that has disappeared today." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2019

"In this handy volume Talbert raises awareness of the methodologies that guide good map-making hand in glove with a survey of the advancement of technology and information that fueled cartographic initiatives from the 19th century into the digital age." - The Classical Journal 2019

Challenges of Mapping the Classical World collects together in one volume fourteen varied items written by Richard Talbert over the past thirty years. They cohere around the theme of mapping the classical world since the nineteenth century. All were originally prompted by Talbert’s commission in the late 1980s to produce a definitive classical atlas after more than a century of failed attempts by the Kieperts and others. These he evaluates, as well as probing the Smith/Grove atlas, a successful twenty-year initiative launched in the mid-1850s, with a cartographic approach that departs radically from established practice. Talbert’s initial vision for the international collaborative project that resulted in the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (2000) is presented, and the successive twice-yearly reports on its progress from 1991 through to completion are published here for the first time. A further item reflects retrospectively on the project’s cartographic challenges and on how developments in digital map production were decisive in overcoming them. This volume will be invaluable to anyone with an interest in the development and growing impact of mapping the classical world.