Klencke Atlas

The Klencke Atlas (1660 ) is one of the largest atlas in the world. He is 1.75 meters high and 1.9 meters wide when open, and so heavy that the British Library six people needed to wear it. It is a world atlas of 37 maps on 39 sheets. The cards were not originally intended for a book, but should be hung on walls. The cards represent the continents and various European countries and it should include the entire geographical knowledge of the time. The Dutch Prince Johann Moritz Prince of Nassau-Siegen is attributed to its origin, and it contains engravings by artists such as Blaeu and Hondius and others.

It was developed by a consortium of Dutch merchants, led by Professor John Klencke (1620-1672), son of a Dutch merchant family, Charles II, presented in 1660, on the occasion of the restoration of his monarchy ( restoration ). Charles II, a Kartenenthusiast, kept it in the ' Cabinet and Closset of rarities ' ( cabinet of curiosities ) in Whitehall.

George III. bequeathed to him in 1828 by the British Library as part of a larger gift of maps and atlases. In the 1950s, he was re-bound and restored. Today, he is kept in the antiquarian map department of the British Library in London. Since 1998, he has been shown in the entrance area of the card reading area. In April 2010 he was again shown the first time in 350 years in public with open pages in an exhibition at the British Library.

By 2010, the Klencke Atlas was generally regarded as the world's largest atlas, a record he probably held since it was created 350 years ago. In October 2010, the Australian publisher Gordon Cheers published a new atlas called Earth ( Earth dt ) of about one foot is larger, and probably makes it the largest Atlas in the world; only 31 copies were produced and sold for $ 100,000 per copy.