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The earliest atlases were not called by that name at the time of their publication, as it was introduced in 1595 by [tag]Mercator[/tag].

The first book that in hindsight could be called an atlas was constructed from the calculations of Claudius Ptolemy, a geographer working in Alexandria circa A.D. 150. The [tag]first edition[/tag] was published in Bologna in 1477 and was illustrated with a set of 27 maps, though scholars say that it is not known whether the printed maps were engraved versions of original maps made by Ptolemy, or whether they were constructed by medieval Greek scholars from [tag]Ptolemy[/tag]’s text.

From about 1544, many maps were produced, especially in the important trading centers of Rome and Venice. Each publisher worked independently, producing maps based upon their own needs. The maps often varied dramatically in size. Over time, it became common to bind the maps together into composite works. Although the term atlas was not in use in 1544, these works are now called “IATO” atlases - (Italian, Assembled to Order) or more frequently “Lafreri atlases” after one of the leading publishers of the period.

Abraham Ortelius is credited with issuing the first modern atlas on May 20, 1570. His Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, contained 53 map-sheets covering the countries of the World. This work was the first book of its kind to reduce the best available maps to a uniform size. It was an immediate critical and commercial success.

However, use of the word “atlas” for a bound collection of maps was not to come into use until the 1595 publication of Gerardus Mercator’s “Atlas, Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes De Fabrica Mundi …” (Atlas, or Description of the Universe) (Duisburg, 1585-1595).

“Atlas” etymology

The origin of the term atlas is a common source of misconception, perhaps because two different mythical figures named ‘Atlas’ are associated with mapmaking.

• King Atlas, a mythical King of Mauretania, was, according to legend, a wise philosopher, mathematician and astronomer who supposedly made the first celestial globe. It was this Atlas that Mercator was referring to when he first used the name ‘Atlas’, and he included a depiction of the King on the title-page.

• However, the more widely known Atlas is a figure from Greek mythology. He is the son of the Titan Iapetus and Clymene (or Asia), and brother of Prometheus. Atlas was punished by Zeus and made to bear the weight of the heavens on his back. One of Heracles’s labours was to collect the apples of the Hesperides. Heracles went to Atlas and reasoned with him. Eventually, Atlas agreed to collect the apples, and Heracles was left to carry the weight. Atlas tried to leave Heracles there, but Heracles tricked him and Atlas was left to carry the heavens forever. In his epic Odyssey, Homer refers to this Atlas as “one who knows the depths of the whole sea, and keeps the tall pillars who hold heaven and earth asunder”.

In works of art, this Atlas is represented as carrying the heavens or the Celestial Sphere, on his shoulders. The earliest such depiction is the Farnese Atlas, now housed at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli in Naples, Italy. This figure is frequently found on the cover or title-pages of atlases. This is particularly true of atlases published by Dutch publishers during the second half of the seventeenth century. The image became associated with Dutch merchants, and a statue of this figure adorns the front of the World Trade Center in Amsterdam.

The first publisher to associate the Titan Atlas with a group of maps was Lafreri, on the title-page to “Tavole Moderne Di Geografia De La Maggior Parte Del Mondo Di Diversi Autori …”. However, he did not use the word “atlas” in the title of his work.

[tag]Historic preservation[/tag] is the act of maintaining and repairing existing historic materials and the retention of a property’s form as it has evolved over time. When considering the United States Department of Interior’s interpretation: “Preservation calls for the existing form, materials, features, and detailing of a property to be retained and preserved. This may include preliminary measures to protect and stabilize it prior to undertaking other work–or protection and stabilization may be an end in itself, for example, in an archaeological project”. Historic Preservation is a tool to save older buildings.

In England, Antiquarian interests were a familiar gentleman’s pursuit since the mid 17th century, developing in tandem with the rise in scientific curiosity. Fellows of the Royal Society were often also Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries^{[citation needed]}. The UK’s Ancient Monuments Act of 1913 officially preserved certain decayed and obsolete structures of intrinsic historical and associative interest, just as Modernism was lending moral authority to destruction of the built heritage in the name of progress. The UK’s [tag]National Trust[/tag] began with the preservation of historic houses and has steadily increased its scope. In the UK’s subsequent Town and Planning Act (1944), and the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, steps were taken toward historic preservation on an unprecedented scale. Concern about the demolition of historic buildings arose in institutions such as the pressure group The Society for the Preservation of Historic Buildings, which appealed against demolition and neglect on a case by case basis.

In The United States one of the first major Historic Preservation undertakings was that of George Washington’s Mount Vernon in 1858. Founded in 1889, the Richmond, Virginia-based Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities was the United States’ first statewide historic preservation group.^{[citation needed]} The US [tag]National Trust for Historic Preservation[/tag], another privately funded non-profit organization, began in 1949 with a handful of privileged structures and has developed goals that provide “leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to save America’s diverse historic places and revitalize our communities” according to the Trust’s mission statement. In 1951 the Trust assumed responsibility for its first museum property, [tag]Woodlawn Plantation[/tag] in northern Virginia. Twenty-eight sites in all have subsequently become part of the National Trust, representing the cultural diversity of American history. In New York City, the destruction of Pennsylvania Station in 1964 shocked many in that city into supporting preservation. On an international level, the New York-based World Monuments Fund was founded in 1965 to preserve historic sites all over the world.

Under the direction of James Marston Fitch, the first advanced-degree historic preservation program began at Columbia University in 1964.  It became the model on which most other graduate historic preservation programs were created. Many other programs were to follow before 1980: M.A. in Preservation Planning from Cornell (1975); M.S. in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont (1975); M.S. in Historic Preservation Studies from Boston University (1976); and M.S. in Historic Preservation from Eastern Michigan University (1979). The first undergraduate programs (B.A.) appeared in 1977 from Goucher College and Roger Williams College.

Geology (from Greek: γη, ge, “earth”; and λόγος, logos, “speech” lit. to talk about the earth) is the science and study of the solid matter that constitutes the Earth. Encompassing such things as rocks, soil, and gemstones, geology studies the composition, structure, physical properties, history, and the processes that shape Earth’s components. It is one of the Earth sciences. Geologists have established the [tag]age of the Earth[/tag] at about 4.6 billion (4.6×10⁹) years, and have determined that the Earth’s lithosphere, which includes the crust, is fragmented into tectonic plates that move over a rheic upper mantle (asthenosphere) via processes that are collectively referred to as [tag]plate tectonics[/tag]. Geologists help locate and manage the Earth’s natural resources, such as petroleum and coal, as well as metals such as iron, copper, and uranium. Additional economic interests include gemstones and many minerals such as asbestos, perlite, mica, phosphates, zeolites, clay, pumice, quartz, and silica, as well as elements such as sulfur, chlorine, and [tag]helium[/tag].

Planetary geology (sometimes known as [tag]Astrogeology[/tag]) refers to the application of geologic principles to other bodies of the solar system. Specialised terms such as [tag]selenology[/tag] (studies of the moon), areology (of Mars), etc., are also in use. Colloquially, [tag]geology[/tag] is most often used with another noun when indicating extra-[tag]Earth[/tag] bodies (e.g. “the geology of Mars”).

The word “geology” was first used by Jean-André Deluc in the year 1778 and introduced as a fixed term by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in the year 1779. The science was not included in Encyclopedia Britannica’s third edition completed in 1797, but had a lengthy entry in the fourth edition completed by 1809. An older meaning of the word was first used by Richard de Bury to distinguish between earthly and theological jurisprudence.