On The Map

Episode

First
Broadcast

Comments

20121008

Simon Garfield starts his journey through the story of maps in the Great Library of Alexandria where, for the first time, scholars began to plot the wider world.

Ptolemy's atlas of AD 150 was to provide a template of the world for more than a thousand years and it was a version of this that Columbus took with him when he set sail for Japan in 1492.

A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.

Simon Garfield starts his journey through maps in the Great Library of Alexandria.

20121009

After the brilliant theories of Alexandria, the world appeared to fall into a cartographic dark age for about a thousand years.

Still the great maps of the middle ages, such as the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral, had their own different but lofty ambitions of metaphysical meaning - to provide a map-guide for a largely illiterate public to a Christian life.

A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.

After the brilliant theories of Alexandria, the world fell into a cartographic dark age.

20121010

Simon investigates why America was named after a man who got there a year after Columbus.

20121011

Simon Garfield discovers how a map of London helped a Victorian doctor conquer cholera.

05 LAST

20121012

Is the old clich退 that women are less good at navigating than men true? Or do they just have different ways of finding their bearings?

The last part of Simon Garfield's wander through the history of maps takes us down the routes of gender difference and sat nav.

A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.

Simon Garfield asks if the cliche that women are less good at navigating than men is true.

Episodes

Episode	First Broadcast	Comments
01	20121008	Simon Garfield starts his journey through the story of maps in the Great Library of Alexandria where, for the first time, scholars began to plot the wider world. Ptolemy's atlas of AD 150 was to provide a template of the world for more than a thousand years and it was a version of this that Columbus took with him when he set sail for Japan in 1492. A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4. Simon Garfield starts his journey through maps in the Great Library of Alexandria.
02	20121009	After the brilliant theories of Alexandria, the world appeared to fall into a cartographic dark age for about a thousand years. Still the great maps of the middle ages, such as the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral, had their own different but lofty ambitions of metaphysical meaning - to provide a map-guide for a largely illiterate public to a Christian life. A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4. After the brilliant theories of Alexandria, the world fell into a cartographic dark age.
03	20121010	Simon investigates why America was named after a man who got there a year after Columbus.
04	20121011	Simon Garfield discovers how a map of London helped a Victorian doctor conquer cholera.
05 LAST	20121012	Is the old clich退 that women are less good at navigating than men true? Or do they just have different ways of finding their bearings? The last part of Simon Garfield's wander through the history of maps takes us down the routes of gender difference and sat nav. A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4. Simon Garfield asks if the cliche that women are less good at navigating than men is true.