Historical Maps of Greece

David H. Burr. "Greece." From Universal Atlas. New York: Thomas Illman, 1834. .

An excellent map of Greece by David H. Burr, one of the most important American cartographers of the first part of the nineteenth century. Having studied under Simeon DeWitt, Burr produced the second state atlas issued in the United States, of New York in 1829. He was then appointed to be geographer for the U.S. Post Office and later geographer to the House of Representatives. As a careful geographer, Burr is painstaking in this map to put in only information for which he felt there was a scientific basis. Burr's maps are scarce and quite desirable

Thomas G. Bradford. "Greece." From A Comprehensive Atlas. Geographical, Historical & Commercial. Boston: Wm. B. Ticknor, 1835.

A nice map from Boston publisher and cartographer, Thomas G. Bradford, issued in his Comprehensive Atlas of 1835. This atlas contained maps of the United States and other parts of the world, based on the most up-to-date information available at the time. This image of Greece is typical of the output of the firm. It shows the major political divisions, rivers, and settlements.

Maps after Claudius Ptolemy. From Sebastian Munster's edition of Geographia. Woodcuts. Ca. 11x 14, except as noted. Very good condition. Decorative woodblocks on verso attributed to Hans Holbe,1552.

A series of maps based upon the work of Claudius Ptolemy. In the Second Century A.D. Ptolemy was the librarian at Alexandria, the greatest center of learning in the Classical world. Ptolemy wrote two major works, the Almagest, an account of the heavens, and the Geographia, the first atlas of the world. The latter consisted of Ptolemy's compilation of all known geographic information, including instructions for how to make maps. Rediscovered in the middle ages, the Geographia had a huge impact on the awaking western European mind. Ptolemy opened up to view large parts of the unknown world to an audience just starting to explore beyond its narrow horizons. His structure for making maps, with longitude and latitude, and his usual northern orientation for the maps, became the standard from then right up to the present. Such was the impact of Ptolemy's work that even in the sixteenth century, a millennium and a half after it was produced, when Ptolemy's geographic conceptions were known to be wrong, maps based on these conceptions were issued time and again.