Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art

Nowadays we use maps to find where places are and how to find our way. We are familiar with globes and atlases, topographical, geological, weather and road maps, Ordnance Survey maps of various scales, and diagrammatic maps such as bus and tube (metro) maps. But, as the sub‐title of this book indicates, maps can also be works of art, tools of propaganda and demonstrations of power.

Many of the most beautiful and technologically advanced maps ever created were invented for display on walls, some were even painted on walls or carved onto marble which was then fixed on walls. Their...