Treasures: The Blaeu Atlas of Scotland

In 1654, Scotland became one of the best mapped countries in the world. The Blaeu Atlas of Scotland features 49 stunning, hand-coloured maps of Scotland. Collectively, these maps identified over 20,000 locations. For most of these places, this was the first time they ever appeared on a printed map.

Scots celebrated this major publishing achievement, but many questions remain. Why did it take over half a century to publish the atlas? Why was most of the content of the atlas written texts, rather than maps? And how did it get published in Amsterdam by someone who had never set foot in Scotland?

This event accompanies our exhibition, ‘Treasures of the National Library of Scotland’ which is on at George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. The Blaeu Atlas will be on display as part of this exhibition until March 2024.

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