The Golden Atlas

The Greatest Explorations, Quests and Discoveries on Maps

Edward Brooke-Hitching

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781471166822
• eBook ISBN:
  9781471166839
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

'Stunning...divine' Stephen Fry
‘A fabulous book, good enough to eat with a spoon! Marvellous’ John Lloyd, creator of QI
‘Perfect for the armchair adventurer historian, this is a rich visual exploration of some of the most beautiful charts ever created’ National Geographic
'Introduces us to a whole different way of looking at maps. Great illustrations, most engaging - the author is just a mine of information' Simon Mayo's Books of the Year

The Golden Atlas is a spectacular visual history of exploration and cartography, a treasure chest of adventures from the chronicles of global discovery, illustrated with a selection of the most beautiful maps ever created.

The book reveals how the world came to be known, featuring a magnificent gallery of exceptionally rare hand-coloured antique maps, paintings and engravings, many of which can only be found in the author's collection. Arranged chronologically, the reader is taken on a breathtaking expedition through Ancient Babylonian geography and Marco Polo's journey to the Mongol Khan on to buccaneers ransacking the Caribbean and the voyages of seafarers such as Captain Cook and fearless African pathfinders.

Their stories are told in an engaging and compelling style, bringing vividly to life a motley collection of heroic explorers, treasure-hunters and death-dealing villains - all of them accompanied by eye-grabbing illustrations from rare maps, charts and manuscripts. 

The Golden Atlas takes you back to a world of darkness and peril, placing you on storm-lashed ships, frozen wastelands and the shores of hostile territories to see how the lines were drawn to form the shape of the modern world. The author's previous book, The Phantom Atlas, was a critically acclaimed international bestseller, described by Jonathan Ross as 'a spectacular, enjoyable and eye-opening read' and this new book is sure to follow suit. 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Introduction
• 2250 BC-AD 150 BC • Exploration and Mapping of the Ancient World
• 833 • Islamic Geographers and the Search for Knowledge
• 986-1010 • The Vikings Discover America
• 1271-95 • The Travels of Marco Polo
• 1405-33 • The Extraordinary Voyages of Chinese Admiral Zheng He
• 1435-88 • The Portuguese Explore the African Tropics
• 1492-1504 • Christopher Columbus Crosses the Atlantic Ocean
• 1497-98 • John Cabot Journeys to North America
• 1497-99 • Vasco da Gama Reaches India
• 1500 • Pedro Cabral Cracks the Atlantic Code and Discovers Brazil
• 1513 • Juan Ponce de León Discovers Florida
• 1519-21 • The Circumnavigation of Ferdinand Magellan
• 1524 • Verrazzano Traces the East Coast of North America
• 1526-33 • Francisco Pizarro Conquers Peru
• 1577-80 • Sir Francis Drake Sails Around the World
• 1582-1610 • Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Missionaries in China
• 1594-1611 • Willem Barentsz, Henry Hudson and the Quest for an Arctic Passage
• 1595-1617 • Sir Walter Ralegh Searches for El Dorado
• 1606-29 • The Dutch East India Company and the European Discovery of Australia
• 1642-44 • Abel Tasman Finds New Zealand
• 1683-1711 • The Educated Pirate: The Adventures of William Dampier
• 1725-41 • Vitus Bering’s Expedition into the Great Frozen North
• 1766-69 • Bougainville’s Scientific Circumnavigation of the Globe
• 1768-78 • Captain Cook Maps the Pacific and Southern Oceans
• 1785-88 • The Vanishing of the La Pérouse Expedition
• 1791-95 • George Vancouver Reveals America’s Northwest Coast
• 1795-1806 • Mungo Park Explores North Africa
• 1799-1802 • Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland Explore South America
• 1803-06 • Lewis and Clark Hunt for a Route to the Pacific
• 1819-20 • William Edward Parry Penetrates the Arctic Archipelago
• 1839-43 • James Clark Ross and the Search for the Magnetic Poles
• 1845-47 • The Mysterious Disappearance of the Franklin Expedition
• 1846 • The Age of the Female Traveller Begins
• 1853-73 • David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley and the ‘Dark Continent’
• 1860-61 • Burke and Wills’s Doomed Crossing of Australia
• 1878-80 • Adolf Nordenskiöld Circumnavigates the Entire Eurasian Landmass
• 1893-1909 • The Race to the North Pole
• 1903-12 • Roald Amundsen Conquers the Northwest Passage – and the Race to the South Pole
• 1914-17 • Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition in the Endurance
• Afterword
• Acknowledgements
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• Credits
• Copyright