Historical Atlas/Maps

[Ekmek]

Anyone have good links or pictures of world maps at certain periods? I find stuff from time to time but would like good maps of the world in 1776, 1492, 1620 stuff like that. So often you just see the significant region for that period but I'm always curious about the world situation (if anything t o make good global what if scenarios for civ).

thanks.

[Maniac]

I recommend Europa Universalis.

[Locutus]

There are some pretty good atlases out there, if you're willing to cash out (they're not cheap, although books in general aren't so in the scheme of things these aren't even that bad; either way they're well, well worth the money if you're into this stuff). For generic historical referencing (no particular time periods, topics, etc) I'd recommend (in order of personal preference, although it's a close contest):

- Oxford/Philip's Atlas of World History (Oxford = UK publisher; Philip's = US publisher, otherwise same book)
- Hammond/Times Atlas of World History (only the older editions are called Times, Hammond bought them out in the 90s)
- Dorling-Kindersley Atlas of World History

Yes, I know, the naming isn't terribly original These should all be around $100 new.

John Haywood is responsible for a whole bunch of historical atlases, I have one but any should be fine, depending on what you need and fits your budget. Penguin also has a bunch of historical atlases that are supposed to be good, although what I've seen of these I'm less impressed by them than by the others I've mentioned (but at least they're relatively cheap and they do use a rather different approach and style which would make them a good complementary source -- if only I had an unlimited budget )

If you're not willing to pay for this stuff you're mostly dependent on generiosity, a lot of the high-quality maps you'll find online are scans from these or a handful of other historical atlases. You can find a good number of them right here on Apolyton actually, at http://haven.apolyton.net/. One other fantastic collection of generic historical maps is from the University of Texas, believe it or not It's at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_s...ist_sites.html. Many of these are from old atlases or other sources not/no longer covered by copyright, although they have really a wide collection of sources.

Other than that you'll mostly have to rely on Google and stuff like that (not to mention libraries and the better bookstores), searching specificially for the things you need. There's some good maps online but most sites only cover specific topics/time periods and I'm not aware of many quality repositories like the UT one.

None of these maps are to be trusted 100% of course, they all have their limitations and caveats and can't replace doing your own homework. But for many purposes they're 'good enough' and otherwise at least a good starting point.

[Drake Tungsten]

I got the latest edition of the Times Atlas for $20.

[Dis]

I love that stuff too, it'd be nice if libaries had that stuff. I'm not willing to pay that much for it, but would love to see it.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Maniac
I recommend Europa Universalis.

Or any other historical games, or Civ2 scenarios, they tend to be quite accurate. Although I only use them to supplement my own research.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

This link may be of intererest-

http://www.britannia.com/history/herefords/mapmundi.html

[molly bloom]

www.mapsofwar.com for the Middle East and more.


www.strangemaps.wordpress.com for, ah, strange maps.


http://www.historytoday.com/frontpage.aspx- a good general searchable site with relevant maps in articles.

For the curious, Tudor history in maps:

http://tudorhistory.org/maps/

The British Library's map collection:

http://www.bl.uk/collections/maps.html

Mediaeval maps:

http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/LMwebpages/LML.html

Abraham Cresques, The Catalan Atlas (a detail) :