ELEVATION - Maphead - page 66

sider: is the divide really all that wide? All the sweaty tropical valor of the Indian surveys
was performed in the service of trigonometry, of all things—it's hard to get nerdier than
that. Eratosthenes, the mapmaker who was the first man to accurately measure the size of
the Earth, was a librarian . The great mariners of the Age of Exploration, for all their naval
derring-do, never would have left home if they hadn't been map geeks as well: Colum-
bus etched maps in his brother's Lisbon print shop (“ God had endowed me with ingenuity
andmanualskillindesigningspheres,andinscribinguponthemintheproperplacescities,
rivers,andmountains,isles,andports,”heoncewrotethekingofSpain),and Vespucciwas
a map collector from his youth. We think of trail-blazing as a tough, brawny pursuit, but
there's something solitary and nerdish at the heart of it. What is exploration if not the urge
to go somewhere where there's no one else around—where no one, in fact, has ever been?
OnthewallnexttoLordCurzon,Mindypointsoutaphotographofthe current president
of the Royal Geographical Society. “Is that a joke?” she asks incredulously. It's none other
than Monty Python's Michael Palin —who, I explain to Mindy, has become a respected
globetrotter and travel documentarian in recent years. He's so influential that the travel in-
dustryspeaksofa“Palineffect,”asuddeninfluxoftouristspouringintoanydestinationhe
features on his TV programs. I guess that seals the deal regarding the nerd/explorer over-
lap: if a geek icon like Monty Python can take over the Royal Geographical Society, then
exploration isn't just for jocks and probably never was. But Mindy can't stop laughing at
the idea of “K-K-K-Ken” from A Fish Called Wanda having been placed in charge of Brit-
ish geography. I guess I can see her point; it would be like an Englishman coming to the
United States only to find that William Shatner runs NASA now.
The now-valuable maps of the Age of Discovery made the world a much bigger place,
but the world of map collecting itself is small. “It is a tiny subculture,” says the New York
dealer Henry Taliaferro. “I'm an expert in rare maps, but saying you're the greatest expert
in rare maps is like saying you're the best ballet dancer in Galveston, Texas.” It's an insu-
lar, incestuous world where everyone knows everyone else. Dealers sell maps to collect-
ors but might buy them back later when a collector moves on or decides to refine his or
her collection, and then sell them again to someone else. (Many of the best maps on dis-
play here today are on consignment from private collectors looking to sell.) Dealers sell to
museums and libraries as well—Nikolaus Struck, a map dealer here from Berlin, tells me
he makes most of his living selling to museum curators. This is why the year's big map
fairs—London, Miami, Paris—are such important events in the trade: they're symposia as
well as marketplaces, chances for colleagues to meet up and swap stories. “In the evening
we go out together, eat and drink,” says Massimo De Martini.
But that cozy world is changing. “The one thing that's transformed everything is the In-
ternet,”saysTaliaferro'spartner,PaulCohen.“Before,thedealershadspecialknowledge.”
In fact, many dealers could make a living as trusted tastemakers, shepherding a small but