Maps
Atlases
Books
Prints
Globes and Planetaria
Discover
In this section we gather together information for the collector. We offer advice on building and housing your maps and books, provide biographies of mapmakers, and a glossary of bookselling terms, and we draw together some common themes that span our collections, and tell stories of the histories of exploration and cartography.
Featured items
From the astronomical library of Mary, Queen of Scots
Jacques Bassantin’s Astronomique discourse par Jacques Bassantin Escossois
The latest news
Public cash call to help keep Armada maps in the UK
3 November 2020
The National Museum of the Royal Navy hopes to raise £600,000 to stop the export of a group of hand-drawn Armada maps to an overseas buyer.
How to
A guide to your collection
Are you new to collecting maps? Would you like guidance on how to handle the books and maps in your collection?
From the glossary
Illuminated
A manuscript or book embellished with decorative elements that are typically hand-painted in rich colours and are sometimes gilded. The elements may include initial letters, designs, and/or pictorial scenes.
French: Enluminure
German: Illuminiert
Mapmaker biographies
HOLLAR, Wenceslas
Wenceslas Hollar was born in Prague, but lived a peripatetic life, mostly spent in London, but with spells in Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne and Antwerp.