Geographia Generalis

This classic work of geography by 17th-century scholar Bernhardus Varenius provides a comprehensive overview of the principles and methods of geographic analysis. It offers a valuable historical perspective on the development of the field of geography. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Using Scotland as an exemplar, the author explores the relationship between geographical knowledge and national identity.

This fresh portrait of Varenius presents a young German scholar, whose books on Japan (1649), the first one from a European perspective, and on General Geography (1650) were written and published in Amsterdam and led to establishing geography as a science.

Geography as an academic discipline dates back to the last few decades of the nineteenth century. However, during the preceding centuries a large body of English-language literature relevant to the field of special geography was published. Four Centuries of Special Geography lists all the works published before 1888 and includes descriptions of each entry and notes on later editions. Francis Sitwell has written an extensive introduction in which he provides a detailed guide to the organization and contents of the bibliography. He also evaluates special geography as a genre which contributed to scholarly discourse from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. In addition, he examines the genre as a whole and discusses its relation to the evolving world of ideas during the same time period. The result of several years of data-gathering, this book will be a valuable research tool for anyone seeking to examine aspects of the development of the field of geography in the years before it was defined as a distinct academic discipline. It will also be useful to those whose research focuses on the acquisition and transmission of geographical knowledge prior to the twentieth century, in particular on the place of geography in educational curricula.