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ABOUT THE COVERThis month’s cover illustration is a detail of the cartouche from a 1595 pictorial relief map of Africa by Gerard Mercator (1565–1656). The 38 by 47 centimeter hand-painted map is one of hundreds in Northwestern University Library’s collection of rare historic African maps which will be on exhibit November 4–December 14, 2007, as part of the City of Chicago’s Festival of Maps. Viewers of this exhibit will encounter changes and trends in European cartography, as well as European perceptions, fables, and facts about Africa prevailing at the time of the maps’ creations. The library’s entire collection of African maps was digitized in 2007 and made available to the public online. Online access to the collection is available at www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/mapsofafrica/.
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