Atlas facts for kids

An atlas is a collection of maps or manifolds, traditionally bound into book form, but also found in multimedia formats.

It may show geographic features and political boundaries, but often social, religious and economic statistics as well.

World map from the first modern atlas by Ortelius - Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570)

History

The earliest atlases were not called by that name at the time of their publication. The first book that could be called an atlas was constructed from the calculations of Claudius Ptolemy, a geographer who worked in Alexandria circa A.D. 150. The first edition was published in Bologna in 1477 and was illustrated with a set of 27 maps, though scholars say that it is not known whether the printed maps were engraved versions of original maps made by Ptolemy, or whether they were constructed by medieval Greek scholars from Ptolemy's text.

From about 1544, many maps were produced, especially in the important trading centers of Rome and Venice. Each publisher worked independently. They produced maps based upon their own needs. The maps often varied dramatically in size. Over time, it became common to bind the maps together into one book. Although the term atlas was not in use in 1544, these works are now called "IATO" atlases - (Italian, Assembled to Order) or more frequently "Lafreri atlases" after one of the leading publishers of the period.

Modern atlases

With the coming of the global market, publishers in different countries can reprint maps from plates made elsewhere. This means that the place names on the maps often use the designations or abbreviations of the language of the country in which the feature is located, to serve the widest market. For example, islands near Russia have the abbreviation "O." for "ostrov", not "I." for "island". This practise differs from what is standard for any given language.

Selected general atlases

Some cartographically or commercially important atlases include the following:

17th century and earlier

• Piri Reis Map (Ottoman Empire, 1570-1612)
• Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Netherlands, 1570-1612)
• Dell'Arcano del Mare (England/Italy, 1645-1661)

18th century

• Cartes générales de toutes les parties du monde (France, 1658-1676)
• Britannia Depicta (London, 1720)
• Atlas Nouveau (Amsterdam, 1742)
• Cary's New and Correct English Atlas (London, 1787)

19th century

• Stielers Handatlas (Germany, 1817-1944)
• Andrees Allgemeiner Handatlas (Germany, 1881-1939; in the UK as Times Atlas of the World, 1895)
• Rand McNally Atlas (United States, 1881-present)

20th century

• Times Atlas of the World (United Kingdom, 1895-present)
• Atlante Internazionale del Touring Club Italiano (Italy, 1927-1978)
• Atlas Mira (Russia, 1937-present)
• Gran Atlas Aguilar (Spain, 1969/1970)
• Pergamon World Atlas (1962/1968)
• National Geographic Atlas of the World (United States, 1963-present)
• Historical Atlas of China (China)

See Other websites below for online modern atlases and digitized historical atlases. The collection of digitized world atlases at DavidRumsey.com lists many significant atlases of the 18th-20th centuries.

Related pages

• Cartography
• Geography
• Google Maps
• Manifold

Images for kids

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  Frontispiece of the 1595 atlas of Mercator

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  World map Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the Orb of the World) by Abraham Ortelius, 1570

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  Blaeu's world map, originally prepared by Joan Blaeu for his Atlas Maior, published in the first book of the Atlas Van Loon (1664).

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  Imperii Orientalis et Circumjacentium Regionum by Guillaume Delisle (1742)

See also

In Spanish: Atlas (cartografía) para niños