A complete "ditto" to corisco's review. This is not a book to read through but to refer to. Capsule biographies of major mapmakers give useful information if you are checking a map's provenance. Exhaustive bibliographies after each chapter might be useful if you read twelve languages. Particularly strong in English county map information. The book is written by an Englishman and tends to the Anglo-centric. Disappointing illustrations in my edition, almost all black and white and not crisp images. This book will stay on my shelf, but only as a reference ( )

This one is a classic in the world of cartography books. It dates from the fifties and was written by R.V. Tooley, an authority on maps and history. I found this an interesting work but not easy to read. The value of it is its function as a reference work. When you find an old map and want to know more about its history, then this book can give some help. ( )