From the 15th century on, engravings influenced European culture almost as profoundly as books. Like stained glass windows in the Middle Ages or television today, popular prints were designed to reach even the lowest orders of society. In the 17th century, Peter Stent, whose shop stood outside Newgate, was England's most prolific seller of popular prints, maps, and copybooks to the working and rising middle classes. His inventory of copper plates reflected the shifts of popular tastes during this period and commented directly on the turbulent events of the day. In documenting Stent's output, Alexander Globe studied the printsellers' advertising catalogues as external controls for reconstructing inventories as well as indices to contemporary tastes. From these and other contemporary sources, Globe cites every engraving and book attributable to Stent, breaking down the material into types: portraits, maps, miscellaneous sheets, and books (including works on handwriting, politics, natural history, anatomy, costume, and architecture). References and additions are made to the catalogues of Donald Wing and A.M. Hind. Globe takes the history of engraving beyond Hind by including prints from the Commonwealth, Protectorate, and early Restoration periods. Eight appendices supplement the catalogue information. They provide evidence for print identificiation, discuss paper sizes, and list Stent's artists, suppliers, and business associates. All the collectiions in which Stent items may be found are named. The volume concludes with a bibliography and indices of subject as well as post-17th century authors. Globe's introduction to Stent's work is concerned with the social, political, and economic conditions leading to the emergence of a popular printseller who catered to a different clientele from that usually studied by art historians. Stent's career illustrates the mid-17th century commercial revolution which saw the artisan's customers change from the wealthy leisure class to the worker who wanted mass-produced cheap goods. Drawing on material in a hundred libraries and museums around the world, the catalogue describes over fifteen hundred engravings, including 319 sheets and five books of portraits, 42 maps, 102 miscellaneous prints and sets (with religious, classical, heeraldic, and satirical subjects), and 86 books (on handwriting, politics, military training, natural history, figure sketches, costume, architecture, and ornament). Richly illustrated with 319 plates, Peter Stent will prove valuable not only to print dealers, art historians, museums, and libraries, but also to social, cultural, and political historians.

For more than thirty years, the History of Cartography Project has charted the course for scholarship on cartography, bringing together research from a variety of disciplines on the creation, dissemination, and use of maps. Volume 6, Cartography in the Twentieth Century, continues this tradition with a groundbreaking survey of the century just ended and a new full-color, encyclopedic format. The twentieth century is a pivotal period in map history. The transition from paper to digital formats led to previously unimaginable dynamic and interactive maps. Geographic information systems radically altered cartographic institutions and reduced the skill required to create maps. Satellite positioning and mobile communications revolutionized wayfinding. Mapping evolved as an important tool for coping with complexity, organizing knowledge, and influencing public opinion in all parts of the globe and at all levels of society. Volume 6 covers these changes comprehensively, while thoroughly demonstrating the far-reaching effects of maps on science, technology, and society—and vice versa. The lavishly produced volume includes more than five hundred articles accompanied by more than a thousand images. Hundreds of expert contributors provide both original research, often based on their own participation in the developments they describe, and interpretations of larger trends in cartography. Designed for use by both scholars and the general public, this definitive volume is a reference work of first resort for all who study and love maps.