Geography as an academic discipline dates back to the last few decades of the nineteenth century. However, during the preceding centuries a large body of English-language literature relevant to the field of special geography was published. Four Centuries of Special Geography lists all the works published before 1888 and includes descriptions of each entry and notes on later editions.

O.F.G. Sitwell's profile page

Francis Sitwell is a professor in the Department of Geography at University of Alberta.

In the era of research assessment exercises, when it is all too easy to believe that rapidity and quantity of publication are what matter, it is a pleasure to come across a book which has been a long time in the making and which demonstrates the continued existence of the sort of scholarship for which universities have always been justly renowned ... For those interested in the history of one aspect of their discipline, and in its educational context, it will be an invaluable source, for which Francis Sitwell will be thanked many times over.

Progress in Human Geography