James Rennell (1742 1830) could be claimed as the father of historical geography. After a long career at sea and in India, during which he had learned surveying and cartography, he returned to England, and entered the circle of Sir Joseph Banks, who encouraged him to widen the his interests to include the geography of the ancient world. This two-volume work was published posthumously in 1831: Rennell had been working on the topic for many years, and had published a part of his findings in 1814, as Observations on the Topography of the Plain of Troy, also reissued in this series. The area covered in the treatise is a wide one, from Egypt to the Danube and from the Aegean to the Caspian Sea. In Volume 1, Rennell lays out his geographical findings, and begins to discuss the relations of the modern to the ancient world."

James Rennell (1742 1830) could be claimed as the father of historical geography. After a long career at sea and in India, during which he had learned surveying and cartography, he returned to England, and entered the circle of Sir Joseph Banks, who encouraged him to widen the his interests to include the geography of the ancient world. This two-volume work was published posthumously in 1831: Rennell had been working on the topic for many years, and had published a part of his findings in 1814, as Observations on the Topography of the Plain of Troy, also reissued in this series. The area covered in the treatise is a wide one, from Egypt to the Danube and from the Aegean to the Caspian Sea. In Volume 2, Rennell surveys the Greek and Roman territories of Asia Minor, and considers in detail the Roman road network of the area."

James Rennell (1742 1830) could be claimed as the father of historical geography. After a long career at sea and in India, during which he had learned surveying and cartography, he returned to England and entered the circle of Sir Joseph Banks, who encouraged him to widen his interests to include the geography of the ancient world. In this work, published in 1814, Rennell compares the actual topography of the area in which Troy was believed to be located with the accounts of ancient commentators on Homer, with the Homeric accounts themselves, and finally with the work of ancient geographers. Without offering his own solution to the problem, he demolishes with zest the then current theory that Troy was located at the village of Bournabashi - a conclusion with which Heinrich Schliemann later agreed. Rennell's posthumously published work on the topography of Western Asia is also reissued in this series."