Globemakers, Peter Bellerby

“Peter Bellerby''s tale of learning how to fashion worlds-a journey through history, science, craft, and passion-spun me on my axis.”-Dava Sobel, New York Times bestselling author of Longitude The beautifully illustrated story of our globe and the globes it has inspired, told from inside the workshop of one of the world''s last globemakers, with four-color photos throughout. Many of us encounter a globe as children. We find a grown-up and ask, “Where are we?” They spin the globe and point to a minuscule dot amidst a massive expanse of sea and land.

Thousands of questions follow. A profound convergence of art and science, a globe is the ultimate visualization of our place in our galaxy and universe. To be a globemaker requires a knowledge of geography, skilled engineering, drawing, and painting, and only a few people in history have ever really mastered the craft.

When Peter Bellerby set out to make a globe for his father''s eightieth birthday, after failing to find a suitable one to purchase, he had no idea w