The State Map Collection in PragueAuthor(s): Ivan KupčíkSource: Imago Mundi, Vol. 35 (1983), pp. 103-104Published by: Imago Mundi, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1150906 .

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The State Map Collection in Prague The most important Czechoslovak collection of old maps is the State Map Collection in Prague, even though it

was surpassed during the post-war period, as far as sheer numbers of maps are concerned, by an extensive but only partially catalogued map collection of the State Central Archives.'

The State Map Collection was inaugurated shortly after the founding of the republic on November 29th, 1920 and was administrated from its very beginning as an independent, scientific department of the Ministry of Educa- tion and Culture. The map collection had a marked work and publication concentration, it had its own endow- ment and later its own personnel. This collection, which to date is housed in the building of the Geographic Institute of the Charles University, through the good services of its founder and first director, Professor Viclav ?vambera (1866-1939), comprises map documents not only from Czechoslovakia, but also from foreign countries.2

From the very beginning, this map collection has had close ties with the university. The first common editing success was the publication of the Monumenta Cartographica Bohemiae by B. Salamon and V. Svambera. In order to publish this work, which was completed in 1938, the rare maps of Bohemia had to be studied and a method of historico-cartographic analysis determined. This was accomplished by Professor Karel Kuchai (1906-1975) who, after the war, was made director of the collection.

There were no lasting and historically traceable losses during the war, as was the case in Germany and Poland, to cite an example; as a result, the storage of the old map material with a few exceptions has remained the same. After 1945 the map holdings of the former Geographic Institute of the German University in Prague and, after the treaty with the National Culture Commission, map material from confiscated castles was taken to Albertov and to the branch Na Slupi. Step by step, confiscated maps from 58 castle libraries were taken over; an assessment to 1938 was made and records were started. At the end of 1952, the map collection was integrated into the then new created Czechoslovak Academy of Science and complemented by the Cabinet for Cartography as a theoretical department.3 Shortly before 1951, the maps and atlases of the National Museum in Prague and from the National and University Library were included in the map collection, a fact which greatly extended its potential for scientific work. Scientific reports were published in its own journal, Kartograficky Pfehled (1946-1960); in the fifties, this was the only carto- graphic journal in the world. The contributions on the activities of K. Callot, J. Homolka, 0. B. Klauser, K. Koiistka, F. J. H. Kreibich, V. Merklas, J. Ch. Miller, S. Podolsky, J. SuchAnek et al. not only gave a view of the working methods of the old surveyors and cartographers, but also enabled one to get acquainted with their work and to form a critical judgement via a contribution. In 1962, the map collection, as a result of the efforts of the archive administration of the Ministry of the Interior (at its expense), received the photographic views of the topo- graphical sections of the Josephinian field mappings (1764-68) for the Czechoslovak national territory, which had remained an integral part of the Austrian Fund in the Vienna War Archives after the First World War.

On an international level, the State Map Collection not only reacted to M. Destombes's proposal for an inventory of map documents existing after the war, but also took notice of R. A. Skelton's suggestion to edit the registers of the old globes made before 1850, this as early as 1959. For this purpose, a photographic documentation was produced of all globes preserved in Czechoslovakia and the first results were published by K. Kuchar in 1964,4 L. Mucha worked on the listing of the globes of local origin which were made after 1850.5 An exemplary book Early Maps of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia was published in English in 1961 with a text by K. Kuchai .

In the meantime (1963), the State Map Collection was integrated with its Cabinet for Cartography and all employees into the newly founded Geographical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science, where the financial administration of the collection is still centred.6 Since that time, the map collection, as a result of copyright submissions and purchases at home and abroad, has increased considerably. The present arrangement is a reflection of its peak state of organization to date. At the beginning of 1980, the map collection numbered approximately 80,000 map sheets, 1,530 atlases, 9,600 books and 14,500 photocopies.7

Historically speaking, the most valuable collection is the one of atlases and cosmographies since sixteenth century and Czech manuscript maps since the end of the sixteenth century. The State Map Collection has a Kozmograffia Czeska (Czech Chronicle) of Zikmund of Puchov (1554), Munster's Cosmographia dated 1575 and atlases of the Dutch, French and German geographers and atlas publishers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The atlases of the Amsterdam family of Blaeus are present in respectable numbers including Novus Atlas in 6 volumes of 1641-55 and Atlas Maior in 11 volumes of 1662, J. Janssonius is represented by Novus Atlas Absolutissimus in 6 volumes dated 1638-58. The later Dutch atlas publishers, N. Vischer and F. de Wit, are represented by many seventeenth atlases. The map collection has also Mercator-Hondius's Atlas sive Cosmographiae . . . dated 1631 and Atlas, Das ist Abbildung ... dated 1633, Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum from Plantin's press (1592), Kaerius's atlas Germania Inferior (1617), Jaillot's La Neptune Francois (1693) and Homann's atlases including his Grosser Atlas with 126 maps ( 17 16). The manuscript map collections are centred around the work of S. Podolsky, 0. B. Klauser and K. Kofistka with many valuable border-zone maps which came about as a result of the frequent and endless disputes. Among individual items of interest are hand-drawn originals of the 3rd Austrian topographic surveys for Czech countries (1875-83, the essential addition in the seventies) the globe collection (Blaeu, Doppelmayer, Janssonius, Juttner, Seutter et al.). and a rich supporting library with cartographic bibliographies, with facsimile editions-listed alphabetically from Almagia to Vingboons-and the absolutely necessary information on research work of the history of cartography of Czechoslovakia. The State Map Collection possesses a complete set of photographic docu- mentation of old topographic maps for Czech countries, general and special literature on old cartography, lists of locations, bibliographies and catalogues of libraries, cartographic journals and the collection of old travel itineraries. The collections of the most recent and very modern maps-topographical, geographical and of course thematic maps form part of the evidence on older cartographic productions.

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The State Map Collection (Stdtn sbt'rka mapovd) is housed at 12843 Praha 2, Albertov 6 and is open to the public from 9 to 12 a.m. Munchen, August 1982 Ivan Kupcik

1. Kupck, Ivan, 'Collections of Old Maps, Atlases and Globes in Bohemia' [Extract from a paper read to the IXth International Conference on the History of Cartography, Pisa-Florence-Rome 1981]' in: Biblioteca Internazionale di Cultura (Rome, 1982).

2. Svambera, Viclav, 'Institut de Geographie de l'Universite Charles IV' in: V. Svambera (ed), Travaux Geographiques Tcheques (Praha, 193 1)

3. Kuchar, Karel, 'Pracoviste pro kartografii v Ceskoslovenske Akademii ved' Zprdvy Geografickeho uistavu CSAV V 2 (Brno, 1968) 16-19.

4. Kuchar, Karel, 'Register of old globes in Czechoslovakia' Zprdvy Geografickeho Ustavu CSAV I 5 (Opaua, 1964) 7-13.

5. Mucha, Ludvik, 'Geschichte und Liste der modernen tschechischen Globen' Der Globusfreund 21/23 (Wien, 1973) 232-42.

6. Mojdl, JiH, 'Stitni sbirka mapovi' (A paper read at the Third National Symposium on the History of Czechoslovakia, held on 29th October 1981 in Praha).

7. Kupcik, Ivan, 'Ergebnisse und Tendenzen der weiteren Entwicklung der historisch-kartographischen Forschung in der Tschechoslowakei seit dem Jahre 1970' Kartographische Nachrichten 30 (Bonn-Bad Godesberg, 1980) 184-186.

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