Atlases 

When I was in High School, I loved the subject of social sciences and Politics. Geography was also part of these subjects, my teachers explained how society and politics are usually dictated by their country’s location and resources. In class, we usually use atlases to see the different aspects of the world. Atlases are interesting objects, since they are a compilation of geographic features and all its related content. Maybe you’re wondering, what exactly is an Atlas?

An ATLAS is a collection of manifolds or maps, normally printed in hardbound books, but recent development has allowed it to be used in multimedia formats. Atlases don’t feature geographic features alone. It also features Political boundaries that often feature social, religious and economic statistics. This is what makes an atlas more interesting. Atlases were made through a society’s belief and understanding of a certain area in the world. The earliest atlases were not called atlases; it wasn’t until Cladius Ptolemy (a famous geographer) in Alexandria around A.D. 150. The first edition ever published was made in 1477 in Blogna. Which was a set of 27 maps which many people thought was an engraved version of Ptolemy’s maps or if they are just derived from Ptolemy’s text.

Until 1544, many maps were produced usually about the trading centers of Rome and Venice, since there were a lot of independent cartographes it wasn’t long that the maps need to be bound together in order to make sure that the directions and format of the maps were clear. The first person to publish the first modern-day atlas was Abraham Ortelius on May 20, 1570. This work was called, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum which contained 53 map-sheets covering the countries of the world. This work was the first book of its kind to reduce the best available maps to a uniform size. It was an immediate critical and commercial success. Around 1500-1700, the demand for atlases skyrocketed and there had been different versions of it for different nations. This means that the place and names on the maps that 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, the islands near Russia have the abbreviation "O." for "ostrov", not "I." for "island". The differences of the culture and country differs the standard for any kind of map package and it reaches its extremity concerning misinterpretations from other languages. Now that you know a little bit about the history and how atlases developed through time, make sure to find one or even better, buy one to practice your navigational skills and play a game with someone, this is usually done by looking for one place or area while there is a time limit

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