Sailing To shops Istanbul - Bo Press Miniature Books

SAILING TO ISTANBUL - A History In Maps
Bo Press Miniature Books, Riverside CA 2016
2 3/4" x 2 3/8"
74 pages, 28 tipped-in maps,

It's Istanbul, not Constantinople now, but from the 11th century BCE and the foundation of the Thracian settlement known as Lygos, the world's richest and best-defended city has stood at the meeting point of Europe and Asia. Sailing To Istanbul is a history of the city told in maps, from the earliest known depiction of the city in the Tabula Peutingeriana to the modern map of the Istanbul rapid transit system. The maps, both Eastern and Western, speak volumes about the city's history, past, and future.

There are twenty-eight tipped-in maps, ranging from the Nuzhat al-mushtāk fi'khtirāq al-āfāq of 1154 to the map of Constantinople by Christoforo Buondelmonte - the first map of the city itself. A map by the explorer and artist Piri Reis makes an appearance, and one of the loveliest maps, by an unknown hand, is from the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The most unsettling map, an Ottoman Empire census map from 1914, shows the proportional population figures of Muslims, Armenians, and Greeks.

The book also contains a fold-out timeline of the city, and a copy of Yeats famous poem" Sailing To Byzantium", from which this little map collection gets its name.

The book is bound in shops a blue and gold Italian marbled paper and lined with a speckled gold metallic paper, which also covers the vertical bar that provides the book's closure.The overflap binding was inspired by a 17th century edition of Reis' Book On Navigation held in the Walters Art Museum.

Pat Sweet and the Bo Press make miniature illustrated books, maps, portfolios, journals and globes from 1/2" to 3". Subjects range from fans to werewolves to mathematics, but have common themes of curiosity, wonder, mystery, and delight. Member of the Miniature Book Society and IGMA.