Book Description

This book covers the history of map production in regard to Greek space during the years of foreign rule (1420-1800). The maps of the area of Greece are presented as products as well as factors of a broader history, wherein geographic specialization reflects composite realities – at times opposed to one another – of political, educational and ideological nature. Following a brief presentation of the ancient and medieval cartographic heritage of Humanism, the book addresses the mechanisms of composition of maps of the Greek area in the Renaissance and throws light on the standardization and dissemination of the basic cartographic models of Greece and its regions through the production of world atlases in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. This richly illustrated historical study of the cartography of Greek space reveals the gradual emergence of Greece onto the cultural scene in modern times as a recognizable geographic, cultural and historical entity. Illustrations are based on the voluminous map collection of Margarita Samourka, the catalogue of which (some 1,700 maps) is published in an appendix compiled by the bibliographer Leonora Navari.