Renaissance map-makers produced ever more accurate descriptions of geography, which were also beautiful works of art. They filled the oceans Europeans were exploring with ships and to describe the real ships which were the newest and best products of technology. Above all the ships were there to show the European conquest of the seas of the world.

List of illustrations Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations Glossary of Shipbuilding Terms Introduction Maps and Mapping Making Maps without Ships, with Ships Mapping before the Renaissance Portolans and the Late Medieval Transition The Classical Revival, Printing and Maps New Routes and Portuguese Map Makers Iberian Influence in Southern Europe Northern Europe and Southern Practices Ships, Geography, and Humanism Epilogue Bibliography Notes Index

RICHARD W. UNGER trained as an economic historian and has published widely on ships and shipping before 1800, brewing from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century and on energy use and its impact in pre-modern Europe. He has taught history at the University of British Columbia for more than four decades.