Gilbert H. Grosvenor, National Geographic magazine’s founding editor, is credited with saying: A map is the greatest of all epic poems. Its lines and colors show the realization of great dreams.

Maps help illuminate the relationships among ... In particular, they can show the importance of geography: the physical and cultural environments that influenced the music, from European capitals ...

Early maps often charted constellations. They were painted onto cave walls or carved into stone. As people began to travel and explore more of the world, geographical maps started to come together.

Directing a team of artists, Desceliers produced the illustrated, annotated map, full of geographic features both real and imagined. “It’s one of the most beautiful maps to have survived from ...