Review

Aranaz del Río, F. (2019). Your friend the map. Review

0000-0003-3577-8835Roilan Robert-Hodelín^{1  *} 

¹Universidad de Guantánamo. Cuba.

Over the years, cartographic science has advanced significantly. Cartography by digital means is already a reality that shares space with traditional printed cartography. This reality is described in this edition.

Your friend the Map, written by ^{Aranaz del Río (2019),} Aeronautical Engineer and Doctor in Geographic Engineering. It is an enjoyable and useful book for all those people who, as the author points out, want to be friends of maps. The fabulous technical capacity of the author, dedicating almost forty years of his professional life to the National Geographic Institute, and his pedagogical capacity, which he has shown as professor of cartography at the University of Alcalá, allow any reader to understand in a didactic and simple way the maps and their complex process of elaboration. This work describes the different types of maps and their fundamental characteristics. In this sixth edition 14 new topics are introduced; on the one hand, to try to increase the historical knowledge about cartography and, on the other hand, to know the current situation of maps, whose new forms of presentation and utility, could not be understood without the possibilities offered by the new information and communication technologies, which facilitates the consultation and study of teachers, students and people interested in this subject.

The Prologue of the book is written by Lorenzo García Asensio, general director of the National Geographic Institute and president of the National Center of Geographic Information of Spain.

Following the same philosophy of the previous editions, text on the left and graphic illustration on the right, the initial 30 topics increased to 48 in the third edition; to 52 in the fourth edition; to 69 in the fifth edition; and to 83 in this sixth edition, enlarged and updated in February 2019.

Printed in the workshops of the National Geographic Institute, Spain. Editorial National Center for Geographic Information. The book has 193 pages, and consists of eight sections: I.- Basic concepts in cartography, II.- Institutional organization of the Spanish cartography, III.-The cartographic language, IV.-Types of maps, V.- The Atlases, VI.- Elaboration and use of the map, VII.- The cartography of the XXI century, VIII.- Other cartographies.

This work does not exclude, of course, to anybody by reason of age or interest of specific knowledge, it uses a simple language and explanations, exempt of high scientific or technical knowledge.

It has become in Spain a classic book of popularization of cartography for its generalist character and scientific and technical rigor.

Referencias bibliográficas

Aranaz del Río, F. (2019). Tu amigo el Mapa. (6ta ed.). Instituto Geográfico Nacional. ISBN: 978-84-416-4840-1. https://www.ign.es/resources/acercaDe/libDigPub/tu-amigo-el-mapa.pdf

Received: October 15, 2022; Accepted: December 10, 2022

* Author for correspondence: [e-mail]