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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
Re-bound
Copy of a book that has had the original binding removed and a new binding attached; when there is no need to re-sew or trim the book, the term “re-cased” is sometimes used to indicate that a new binding and new end papers have been added.
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.