Posts from — July 2008

For the last 55 years, lawyer and historian Albert Ganado collected many impressive antique maps of Malta. Gando recently handed over his collection to Heritage Malta and the Maltese government.

Dr. Gando’s collection consists of 19 manuscript maps and 431 printed maps of between 1507 and 1899, making it the largest and most complete collection of antique maps of Malta in the world.

Dr Ganado himself is a specialist in the cartography of Malta and has come to be considered as a world authority on maps and prints of Malta. He has written widely about the subject. Although the collection including books, academic material and other documents was estimated at e1,864,000, this value is said to be simply relative and will increase by time.

Full coverage of the acquisition can be read in the Independent, the Times of Malta.

Update August 20, 2008: More coverage at Yell Malta.

Antique maps provide a unique glimpse into the history of Malta, including its “Great Seige”, as mentioned in this previous post, as well as in this previous post.

[tags]antique malta maps, malta, ganado map collection, map collections, antique maps[/tags]

After finding a second copy of a book produced by cartographer John Ogilby, the Asiatic Society will reprint the volume. Previously, only a single copy was believed to have survived, housed at the British Museum.

Maps in the book illustrate interior roads connecting cities, towns and villages of Mughal India and Persia, and turned out to be the blueprint for future conquest by the British some 100 years later.

The book, originally published by Ogilby himself,

is a storehouse of information on the life and mores of those times in India and Persia that give a rare insight into the then political systems of the two countries as well.

Unfortunately, the article really doesn’t say much about the title of the reprinted book, nor how to order a copy. The original book containing the Ogilby maps was produced by Ogilby’s own printing press. The maps are remarkably accurate, particularly if one considers that Ogilby never made a journey to India.

Read the full story in The Statesman.

[tags]ogilby maps of india, antique maps of india, antique maps, antique atlas[/tags]