On Sunday I telephoned Dymocks Booksellers in Penrith because the Burwood branch didn't have what I coveted: Mapping the World (2006). They had five copies at Penrith and one at Broadway, which is close to my work but inconvenient to visit at lunchtime.

So I ordered the book from the Penrith store by credit card: including postage it came to just over $36. The book is on sale. The big, full-colour volume that contains hundreds of pictures of maps, from various ages, arrived at work today.

The U.S. publisher, Chartwell Books (New Jersey) has licensed the book from a London publisher, Compendium Publishing Ltd. The author, Michael Swift, has assembled a large collection of maps painted and printed at various times in history. I'm a major map-lover, so this book is right up my street.

The chapters tell the story. It starts with some explanatory text, then there are time-specific sections:

Introduction (pp. 6 - 31) — 'Why Maps?', 'The Development of Cartography', 'Maps for a Growing Market', 'Major Figures in the History of Mapping', 'Types of Maps', 'Glossary of Cartographic Terms'.
To the End of the Sixteenth Century (pp. 32 - 109)
The Seventeenth Century (pp. 110 - 147)
The Eighteenth Century (pp. 148 - 205)
The Nineteenth Century (pp. 206 - 255)