This book brings together experts in the field to explain the ideas involved in the application of the theory of integrable systems to finding harmonic maps and related geometric objects. It had its genesis in a conference with the same title organised by the editors and held at Leeds in May 1992. However, it is not a conference proceedings, but rather a sequence of invited expositions by experts in the field which, we hope, together form a coherent account of the theory. The editors have added cross-references between articles and have written introductory articles in an effort to make the book self-contained. There are articles giving the points of view of both geometry and mathematical physics. Leeds, England A. P. Fordy October 1993 J. e. Wood Authors' addresses J. Bolton, Dept. of Math. Sciences, Univ. of Durham, South Road, Durham, DHI 3LE, UK A. I. Bobenko, FB Math., Tecbnische Univ., Strasse des 17. Juni. 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany M. Bordemann, Falc. fUr Physik, Albert-Ludwigs'Univ., H. -Herder-Str. 3, 79104 Freiburg, Germany F. E. Burstall, Dept. of Mathematics, Univ. of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA 7 7 AY, UK A. P. Fordy, School of Mathematics, Univ. of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK M. Forger, Falc. fUr Physik, Albert-Ludwigs Univ., H. -Herder-Str. 3, 79104 Freiburg, Germany M. A. Guest, Dept. of Mathematics, Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA P. Z. Kobalc, Math. Institute, Univ. of Oxford, 24-29 St.