Are you looking for an impressive image to add to your blog? All you have to do is Google for it and it appears, as if by magic, on your screen—even if it’s an image taken from a centuries-old book. Spare a thought, however, for the poor people who have been tasked with putting it online in the first place.
Digitizing old books in their collections is a routine part of the work undertaken by archives and libraries. This both preserves the books and makes their content more accessible to the public. But what happens when you need to scan one that’s nearly six feet tall?
The Klencke Atlas. Photo: THE BRITISH LIBRARY/PUBLIC DOMAIN.
The Klencke Atlas
At five feet, ten inches tall, and seven feet, seven inches wide when open, the Klencke Atlas is a massive collection of 41 maps. It was made as a gift to King Charles II by Johannes Klencke. Klencke was a Dutch sugar merchant who hoped to land favorable trading deals with the British Empire. Charles II was a map lover and kept the atlas in his cabinet of curiosities. As for Klencke, he was knighted. The book stayed in the royal collections until 1828, when King George IV gifted it to the British Library with other maps and atlases.
Now the British Library has undertaken the titanic (literally) task of digitizing it. As Kelsey Kennedy of Atlas Obscura explains, it was time to get creative. The Library had to set up a special studio. Two inclined platforms support the sides of the tome, while two people hold up reflectors to evenly illuminate the pages for a camera mounted above.
The End Result
The resulting photographs reveal incredible detail. They also point at some glaring gaps in geographic knowledge in the 17th century, considering much of North America, Australia, and Antartica had yet to be charted when the atlas was completed in 1660.
Antarctica and much of North America were still unmapped in 1660. Photo: THE BRITISH LIBRARY/PUBLIC DOMAIN. Via Atlas Obscura
Maps of Europe are much more detailed and feature illustrations around the borders. Photo: THE BRITISH LIBRARY/PUBLIC DOMAIN. Via Atlas Obscura
While the maps were intended to be hung on the wall, they were left bound instead. This proved a boon to their preservation, as they are now in better condition than those that were subjected to years of sunlight, heat, and dirt. The worst damage was done during previous attempts to restore the aging paper and binding over the years. The maps were trimmed and mounted on new paper sometime in the 1800s, and the volume was rebound in the early 1960s. Today the atlas is usually displayed closed, so the new photographs will allow enthusiasts and scholars to study the maps and illustrations without the trouble of cracking it open.
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Wow! That is an amazing atlas! I love where pieces of the yet to be discovered were left off. So happy I don’t have to stuff that in my backpack.
Here be dragons. As for your backpack, that would have to be some bag you’re carrying 😀
???
This was just WOW. 🙂 Great share!
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I sure did. 🙂
How to get this under the Christmas tree….
Just remove a wall or two 😀
Wow! I better not show this to MR N or else he’ll want one for Christmas. lol!
Lol – surprise him, instead 😀
LOL! I really should. 😉
That is so cool. I’m glad it was preserved. 🙂
True. One of the perks of being a king, I guess: you have ample space for your huge maps 😀
😀
That’s amazing!
Kings get the best toys 🙂
What a simply wonderful thing. I love the fact that it has some bits ‘missed off’, as they were unknown.
I want it! (But I might need a larger house…)
Best wishes, Pete.
It does dwarf mine as well 😀