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An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...
. Atlases have traditionally been bound into
book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this phys ...
form, but today many atlases are in
multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradi ...
formats. In addition to presenting geographic features and political boundaries, many atlases often feature
geopolitical Geopolitics (from Greek γῆ ''gê'' "earth, land" and πολιτική ''politikḗ'' "politics") is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to ...
, social,
religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
and
economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...
statistics. They also have information about the map and places in it.


Etymology

The use of the word "atlas" in a geographical context dates from 1595 when the German-Flemish geographer
Gerardus Mercator Gerardus Mercator (; 5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) was a 16th-century geographer, cosmographer and cartographer from the County of Flanders. He is most renowned for creating the 1569 world map based on a new projection which represented ...
published ("Atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the creation of the universe and the universe as created"). This title provides Mercator's definition of the word as a description of the creation and form of the whole universe, not simply as a collection of maps. The volume that was published posthumously one year after his death is a wide-ranging text but, as the editions evolved, it became simply a collection of maps and it is in that sense that the word was used from the middle of the 17th century. The neologism coined by Mercator was a mark of his respect for the
Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...
,
Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...
, the "King of Mauretania", whom he considered to be the first great geographer.


History of atlases

The first work that contained systematically arranged maps of uniform size representing the first modern atlas was prepared by Italian cartographer
Pietro Coppo Pietro Coppo (1469/70 – 1555/56; la, Petrus Coppus) was an Italian geographer and cartographer who wrote a description of the entire world as known in the 16th century, accompanied by a set of systematically arranged maps, one of the first rut ...
in the early 16th century; however, it was not published at that time, so it is conventionally not considered the first atlas. Rather, that title is awarded to the collection of maps by the
Brabantian Brabantian or Brabantish, also Brabantic or Brabantine ( nl, Brabants, Standard Dutch pronunciation: , ), is a dialect group of the Dutch language. It is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant, which corresponded mainly to the Dutch pro ...
cartographer
Abraham Ortelius Abraham Ortelius (; also Ortels, Orthellius, Wortels; 4 or 14 April 152728 June 1598) was a Brabantian cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer, conventionally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the '' Theatrum Orbis Terr ...
printed in 1570. Atlases published nowadays are quite different from those published in the 16th–19th centuries. Unlike today, most atlases were not bound and ready for the customer to buy, but their possible components were shelved separately. The client could select the contents to their liking, and have the maps coloured/gilded or not. The atlas was then bound. Thus, early printed atlases with the same title page can be different in contents. States began producing national atlases in the 19th century.


Types of atlases

A ''travel atlas'' is made for easy use during travel, and often has spiral bindings, so it may be folded flat (for example,
Geographers' A–Z Map Company Geographers' A–Z Map Company Ltd. is the largest independent map publisher in the United Kingdom, providing cartographic services, digital data products and paper mapping publications (including Street Atlases, Visitors' Guides, Great Brita ...
's A–Z atlases). It has maps at a large zoom so the maps can be reviewed easily. A travel atlas may also be referred to as a ''road map''. A ''desk atlas'' is made similar to a reference book. It may be in hardback or paperback form. There are atlases of the other planets (and their satellites) in the
Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
. Atlases of
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
exist, mapping out organs of the human body or other organisms.


Selected atlases

Some cartographically or commercially important atlases are: 17th century and earlier: *' (Mercator, Duisburg, in present-day Germany, 1595) *'' Atlas Novus'' (Joan Blaeu, Netherlands, 1635–1658) *''
Atlas Maior The ''Atlas Maior'' is the final version of Joan Blaeu's atlas, published in Amsterdam between 1662 and 1672, in Latin (11 volumes), French (12 volumes), Dutch (9 volumes), German (10 volumes) and Spanish (10 volumes), containing 594 maps and ...
'' (Blaeu, Netherlands, 1662–1667) * (France, 1658–1676) * (
Robert Dudley Robert Dudley is the name of: Surname * Robert Dudley (actor) (1869–1955), American dentist and film character actor *Robert Dudley (explorer) (1574–1649), illegitimate son of the 1st Earl of Leicester *Robert Charles Dudley (1826–1909) wate ...
, England/Italy, 1645–1661) *
Piri Reis map The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. Approximately one third of the map survives; it shows the western coasts of Europe and North Africa and the coast of Brazil with reasonable accu ...
(
Piri Reis Ahmet Muhiddin Piri ( 1465 – 1553), better known as Piri Reis ( tr, Pîrî Reis or '' Hacı Ahmet Muhittin Pîrî Bey''), was a navigator, geographer and cartographer. He is primarily known today for his maps and charts collected in his ''K ...
, Ottoman Empire, 1570–1612) *' (Ortelius, Netherlands, 1570–1612) *'' Klencke Atlas'' (1660; one of the world's largest books) *''The Brittania'' ( John Ogilby, 1670–1676) 18th century: *''Atlas Nouveau'' (Amsterdam, 1742) *'' Britannia Depicta'' (London, 1720) *'' Cary's New and Correct English Atlas'' (London, 1787) 19th century: * (Germany, 1881–1939; in the UK as '' Times Atlas of the World'', 1895) *'' Rand McNally Atlas'' (United States, 1881–present) * (Germany, 1817–1944) *'' Times Atlas of the World'' (United Kingdom, 1895–present) 20th century: * (Italy, 1927–1978) *'' Atlas Linguisticus'' (Austria, 1934) * (Soviet Union/Russia, 1937–present) *'' Geographers' A–Z Street Atlas'' (United Kingdom, 1938–present) * (Spain, 1969/1970) *'' The Historical Atlas of China'' (China) *'' National Geographic Atlas'' of the World (United States, 1963–present) *'' Pergamon World Atlas'' (1962/1968) 21st century: *'' North American Environmental Atlas''


See also

*'' Atlas of Our Changing Environment'' *
Bird atlas A bird atlas is an ornithological work that attempts to provide information on the distribution, abundance, long-term change as well as seasonal patterns of bird occurrence and make extensive use of maps. They often involve a large numbers of volunt ...
*
Cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an ...
* Cartopedia * Cloud atlas * European Atlas of the Seas * Fictitious entry *
Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, a ...
*
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
*
Manifold In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a ...
*
NASA World Wind NASA WorldWind is an open-source (released under the NOSA license and the Apache 2.0 license) virtual globe. According to the website (https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/), "WorldWind is an open source virtual globe API. WorldWind allow ...
* National Atlas of the United States * Star atlas * TerraServer-USA * Theatrum Orbis Terrarum


References


External links

;Sources
On the origin of the term "Atlas"
;Online atlases
World AtlasÖROK-Atlas Online
Atlas on spatial development in Austria
Geography NetworkMapChart EarthAtlas
free online atlas with interactive maps about topics like demography, economy, health and environment.
National Geographic MapMachine
;History of atlases

- a discussion of many significant atlases, with some illustrations. Part of

;Historical atlases online
Centennia Historical Atlas
required reading at the US Naval Academy for over a decade.

Perry–Castañeda Library, University of Texas
Ryhiner Collection
Composite atlas with maps, plans and views from the 16th-18th centuries, covering the globe, with about 16,000 images in total.

- fully digitized with descriptions. * ttps://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/ Historical Atlas in Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection Cornell University Library ;Other links
Google Earth:
a visual 3D interactive atlas.


Wikimapia
a wikiproject designed to describe the entire world. {{Authority control