The Blaeu Atlas of Scotland

Book excerpt: The Atlas contains 49 maps, many of them based on the original survey of Timothy Pont who toured the realm in the 1590s, during the reign of James VI, to produce maps of much of Scotland. In addition to the Pont Maps other material - both maps and chorographical - was collected over the next half century and sent to publisher Joan Blaeu in Amsterdam. This new edition of the Blaeu Atlas of Scotland includes all the original maps and text and, for the first time ever, contains a complete text in English, translated from the original Latin by I. C. Cunningham, a classics scholar and, formerly Keeper of Manuscripts, Maps and Music at the National Library of Scotland. This 21st-century edition of Blaeu's Atlas of Scotland will also contain an introduction by Professor Charles Withers, Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Edinburgh, and a translator's note from Ian C. Cunningham. This exclusive, numbered edition, is produced as close as possible to the format and size of the original and will contain images, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland taken directly from their original Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, first edition of 1654. record of Scotland 350 years ago but it is also of immense historical and geographical significance. This new edition will become a collector's piece for all those, worldwide, who are interested in maps and in Scotland's history.