Tooley, R.V., Tooley's Handbook for Map Collectors: The Map Collector's Vade Mecum Arranged by Subjects and Personalities Alphabetically. Chicago: Speculum Orbis Press, 1985. ISBN 0-932757-00-6. 21xl5cm., 144pp., illustrated, cloth. (730 N.  Franklin St., Chicago, IL 60610, $17.00)

This most entertaining and unusual work lists a number of map-collecting topics alphabetically, with brief definitions or referrals to more detailed sources.  For example, under Watermarks is both a definition and a list of seven articles or books on the topic.  Under African Chronology we have a list of important dates of discovery.  Under Collecting and Collectors is a list of about 40 famous collectors.  The listings are idiosyncratic, incomplete, and often amusing.  My favorite under British Museum starts out as Known internationally, now unfortunately renamed British Library... . That renaming was probably by the same tin-eared bureaucrat who gave the world those despised and untypeable British postal codes.  During the last election, the agitprop department of Labour's Loon Left accused Prime Minister Thatcher of seeking to turn the clock back a hundred years.  Would that she could! Returning to the book, there are a number of errors, such as Gangong for Ganong, or Alidode for Alidade, but nothing serious.  The book is useful, enjoyable, verv skillfully designed, reasonably priced, and highly recommended for collectors and dealers.

David C. Jolly, 1988