The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps

by Edward Brooke-Hitching

Overview

The Phantom Atlas is a guide to the world not as it is, but as it was imagined to be. It's a world of ghost islands, invisible mountain ranges, mythical civilizations, ship-wrecking beasts, and other fictitious features introduced on maps and atlases through mistakes, misunderstanding, fantasies, and outright lies. This richly illustrated book collects and explores the colorful histories behind a striking range of real antique maps that are all in some way a little too good to be true. Author Edward Brooke-Hitching investigates the places where exploration and mythology meet, using gorgeous atlas images as springboards for tales of the deranged buccaneers, seafaring monks, heroes, swindlers, and other amazing stories behind cartography's greatest phantoms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452168401
Publisher:	Chronicle Books LLC
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Edward Brooke-Hitching is a map collector and author of Fox Tossing: And Other Forgotten and Dangerous Sports, Pastimes and Games. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a writer for the popular BBC TV show QI, he lives in a dusty heap of old maps and books in London.

Editorial Reviews

"The Phantom Atlas is charmingly written, stunningly illustrated, and elegantly presented (kudos to designer Keith Williams). Even if your passport is stamped to a fare-thee-well, this beguiling book will be an eye-opener - one eye for Arimaspi, four for Nisyti. It tempts travelers toward destinations they will never reach."
-The Santa Fe New Mexican

"What makes Brooke-Hitching's book more than just a collection of oddities is the emphasis on why these errors happen, and how relying on religion at the exclusion of science, or valuing outsider reports ahead of indigenous knowledge, detrimentally impacted centuries of exploring."
-Hyperallergic"

In this atlas of the world 'as it was thought to be,' cartophile Brooke-Hitching documents the persistence of fictitious places-Sandy Island in the eastern Coral Sea, for example, 'existed' a full seven years after the launch of Google Maps. Early ghost places are understandable, explains the author-maps exaggerating the might of God's creation were common in the Middle Ages, for instance, and the dearth of accurate instruments on early ships are another culprit, as sailors often took mirages or clouds as landforms. Maps showing such intentional or accidental slips are apparently legion, and 58 of them, marking well-known "places" such as Atlantis as well as real locations that were mapped incorrectly ("Korea as an Island") are reproduced in color here, with the mistake (or wholesale fabrication) outlined in a few absorbing pages per entry... An intriguing look at how maps can shape our worldview."
-Library Journal

From the Publisher

02/01/2018
In this atlas of the world "as it was thought to be," cartophile Brooke-Hitching documents the persistence of fictitious places—Sandy Island in the eastern Coral Sea, for example, "existed" a full seven years after the launch of Google Maps. Early ghost places are understandable, explains the author—maps exaggerating the might of God's creation were common in the Middle Ages, for instance, and the dearth of accurate instruments on early ships are another culprit, as sailors often took mirages or clouds as landforms. Maps showing such intentional or accidental slips are apparently legion, and 58 of them, marking well-known "places" such as Atlantis as well as real locations that were mapped incorrectly ("Korea as an Island") are reproduced in color here, with the mistake (or wholesale fabrication) outlined in a few absorbing pages per entry. Additional images provide magnified views of portions of maps and period paintings, engravings, etc. The images are small, sometimes making map labels illegible, though as this is more a browsing item than a scholarly one, it is still suitable as a library purchase. VERDICT An intriguing look at how maps can shape our worldview; optional for history collections.—Henrietta Verma, National Information Standards Organization, Baltimore

Library Journal