Specialities of a Cosmographic Atlas 6. – exhibition

This year too, Map Collection of National Széchényi Library keeps on presenting library founder Count Ferenc Széchényi’s map collection including several thousands of items. On the sixth occasion, out of the extremely rich collection including numerous valuable items of 16^th-19^th century European cartography, we have selected from the Netherlandish (Flemish and Dutch) maps and atlases of the library founder’s map collection.

For over 200 years, the Netherlands had been regarded as a major center of modern cartography. From the second half of the 16^th century, a Flemish city, Antwerpen, and from the 1580s-1690s onwards, Amsterdam played the role of the geographic-cartographic center of Europe. Flemish, and later on, Dutch cartographers played a leading role in the utilization of the results and opportunities achieved and offered by the great geographic discoveries, as well as the map making, copying and printing professions. Rival publishers worked at the highest level and created wonderful works, both in the field of individual maps and atlases.

The most significant and, at the same time, most beautiful part of the count’s map collection is formed by Flemish and Dutch maps and atlases. The more than 520 items represent a goldmine of valuable creations of 16^th-18^th cartography. It contains works by some forty publishers, including works by almost all the major figures of Flemish and Dutch cartography. The sixth part of our exhibition series presenting the map collection of Count Ferenc Széchényi features items selected from this superb material. Atlases, atlas pages, maps of battlefields, special-purpose maps, and copies of the so-called landscaping country and province maps have been selected, and the latter deserve to be considered among the most beautiful works of the Dutch golden age and of European map history.

Venue: National Széchényi Library, H-1014 Budapest, Wing “F” of Buda Royal Palace, Map Collection on Floor 6
Date: The exhibition will be open between June 24 and July 14, 2017, and after the annual summer closure, between August 22 and September 23, 2017 (Tuesday to Friday, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., on Saturdays, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.).

Visitors who are not registered readers of our Library can visit our temporary chamber exhibitions for a flat fee of HUF 400.

Thematic website summarizing previous exhibitions and providing a detailed presentation of maps.