"The book is the kind of quality production one expects from the University of Chicago Press, with excellent colour reproductions, thorough cartobibliography and serviceable index. Bayton-Williams is a third-generation map dealer and author of several other cartographic works; his experience shows. His descriptions often reflect research into both historical context and publishing history. By virtue of Bayton-Williams’s selections, the clarity of his descriptions, and the quality of the reproductions, this book is well suited to introduce the joys of old maps to a popular audience. And it also offers some useful material for experienced scholars, students and collectors. Beyond these virtues, I rank this work particularly high on the growing list of coffee-table map books because it shines a welcome light on cartographical curiosities. Mapmakers and scholars formerly embraced an ‘empiricist paradigm’: that the only legitimate objective of the cartographer was to create maps of ever greater geographical accuracy and clarity. There is today a new focus: ‘scientific’ and ‘curious’ maps alike stand on more equal footing, and all are subjected to more rigorous study and analysis. Baynton-Williams’s new book is another step in this direction, and that is one more reason to commend it."