Books in Review 
any scalable (that is, most median-scale 
and all large-scale maps) map because 
it provides the only direct method for 
making measurements on the map and 
it is the only form of scale expression 
that remains true upon reduction or en- 
largement of the map. 
The chapter on Ptolemy is about one 
of the great keys to cartographic his- 
tory and its conclusion is appropriate 
reading for these times. 
If Ptolemy’s errors were many, often due to 
lack of reliable information, the maps based 
on his scholarship were the culminating 
achievement of ancient cartography and a 
crucial legacy. . . . More than a century 
after Ptolemy, Alexandria became a battle- 
ground of revolt and the museum buildings, 
now over 500 years old. were destroyed. 
The temple housing the library survived 
and a few scholars sought to carry on the 
museum's tradition of research. Finally in 
391 A.D., Christian mobs sacked the library, 
burned the priceless contents and converted 
the shell into a church. It was a symbolic 
victory of faith over reason. The words of 
Claudius Ptolemy, among others, were lost 
to the Western world for more than a mil- 
lennium and so too his ideas and ideals for a 
scientific cartography. 
The author then carries us through 
the Dark Ages, dwelling perhaps a little 
too extensively on the ignorance, the 
meaningless mythology and suppres- 
sion of curiosity while the accumulated 
wisdom of the Greeks was imprisoned 
in a few monasteries. The growing wa- 
terborne commerce prompted a new 
start toward exploring the unknown, 
and by the beginning of the fifteenth 
century, Henry the Navigator, prince 
of Portugal, formed the beginnings of a 
shore-based organization devoted to 
stimulating exploration and studying 
the results. Maps are mentioned fre- 
quently, but there is relatively little in- 
Addres- 
State 
For your holiday gift 
giving, remember the 
Museum Shop. You can 
v isit us or mail this 
coupon for a new fall 
catalog. 
American Museum of 
Natural History 
Museum Shop Catalog, 
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CP\Y at 79th St. 
New York, N.Y. 10024 
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