0:00:08 > 0:00:13The British Library in London is home to a staggering four and a half million maps.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19Mysterious and beautiful, these rarely seen treasures
0:00:19 > 0:00:23are much more than just two-dimensional physical depictions of a physical world.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31Among its greatest treasures are the world's very first atlases.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35Masterpieces of scientific endeavour and artistic beauty,
0:00:35 > 0:00:41they are the spectacular achievements of the Golden Age of map-making in the Netherlands.
0:00:43 > 0:00:49The Dutch in this period were perhaps the leading mercantile nation,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53in the world, and so I suppose maps are a natural extension of that.
0:00:58 > 0:01:04The world had never seen printed maps so lavish, so physically large, so expensive.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11For a the super-rich merchants of the Netherlands, the atlas became
0:01:11 > 0:01:16a unique opportunity for conspicuous consumerism and personal display.
0:01:19 > 0:01:25A lot of the decoration of maps is about showing wealth.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30You want to show that you can afford to have a map like this, you can have a gilded map.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36But at the same time it's got entertainment value.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40The more beautiful it looks, the more wonderful, the more spectacular,
0:01:40 > 0:01:44the more entertaining it is, the more lovely it is to have in your home.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46There's an artistic value to them.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Atlases revolutionised map-making
0:01:49 > 0:01:52and changed the way we see the world.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Beyond their physical beauty, they were also celebrations of an entire culture,
0:01:56 > 0:02:03objects of power and persuasion in a world of commerce and political intrigue.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23The Golden Age of the atlas had its beginnings here,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27in the Flemish town of Antwerp at the heart of the Netherlands.
0:02:32 > 0:02:39From the 1550s, it became a boom town for commerce, banking, map-making and publishing.
0:02:42 > 0:02:49It was home to The Golden Compasses, the largest printworks north of the Alps.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54From these miraculously preserved printing presses 400 years ago,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57came the maps that started the atlas revolution.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14The reason that map-making
0:03:14 > 0:03:16becomes so much part of Dutch life
0:03:16 > 0:03:21is really to do with a confluence of factors. What you have
0:03:21 > 0:03:27is a moment at which the Dutch themselves are very much part of the overseas race.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32They're expanding into the East Indies. They're competing with the Portuguese.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36The want to understand those places as traders and as politicians.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39They want to know about the places they're expanding into.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47The boundaries of geographical knowledge were expanding as never before.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50And in the 100 or more printworks in Antwerp,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54the most highly skilled printers and engravers in northern Europe
0:03:54 > 0:03:58set about turning that knowledge into maps.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Here at the Golden Compasses,
0:04:03 > 0:04:08400-year-old copper plates are still producing perfect prints.
0:04:13 > 0:04:18For map-makers, it was a time of unprecedented opportunity.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22And one map-maker would rise above them all.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25His contemporary Abraham Ortelius
0:04:25 > 0:04:29called him "the best geographer of our time".
0:04:29 > 0:04:31His name was Gerard Mercator.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37This is an era of intellectuals.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40It's an era of men who are polymaths.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43They specialise in all kinds of things.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45And Mercator is very much one of those men.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50He wants not only to be able to know about his own locality,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53but also to know about the wider world.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02In the 16th century it's all about understanding the universe
0:05:02 > 0:05:04as a product of a divine plan,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07and Mercator is very much one of those men that feels
0:05:07 > 0:05:12through knowledge of the world you can come to knowledge of God.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19To serve God, Mercator used science.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24A man from humble origins, his father was a lowly cobbler.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Mercator's intellectual ambition was boundless.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31His ideas and his methods transform map-making
0:05:31 > 0:05:35and the way we see the world, forever.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41Using his scientifically rigorous world view, Mercator's projection,
0:05:41 > 0:05:46he mapped the continents to the same accurate scales for the very first time.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Then he gathered his maps together in a single volume,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56and gave it a name we still use every day.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01He called his book Atlas.
0:06:09 > 0:06:15London's British Library is one of the world's great centres of cartographic learning.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20It is also home to a unique collection of
0:06:20 > 0:06:26Mercator's extraordinary maps, under the care of curator Peter Barber.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30Mercator's Atlas is important because it's the earliest attempt at
0:06:30 > 0:06:34a really scientific view of the world, one that's based on
0:06:34 > 0:06:38deep thought, on the valuation of information,
0:06:38 > 0:06:40and on the presentation of a coherent
0:06:40 > 0:06:43and integrated view of the whole world.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Geographer and Mercator biographer Nick Crane
0:06:48 > 0:06:53has come to see the Library's Mercator collection at first-hand.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57- Do you think this was actually coloured by Mercator?- Oh, yeah.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01This, to me, is one of the most exciting books ever published.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04It's the world's first atlas.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07The first bound book of maps that carries the title Atlas.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12It was devised in the late 16th century by Mercator,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15as the ultimate book of the universe.
0:07:15 > 0:07:20It was a cosmography, it was a book that he was attempting to compile
0:07:20 > 0:07:24that would describe absolutely everything in the heavens and on Earth,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27in the whole cosmos - it was a cosmography.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29I've never actually seen
0:07:29 > 0:07:31a Mercator map
0:07:31 > 0:07:33with his own handwriting on it.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36I've seen the prints. I've seen copies.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41In the Atlas, Mercator developed a new method of looking at the world.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46A method that, 400 years later, still seems incredibly modern.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50This is in ink. It's not in pencil, it's ink.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55The beauty of Mercator's Atlas is very much in the idea, the concept,
0:07:55 > 0:08:00and in that sense it's quite invisible. It's invisible beauty. It's a mathematical beauty.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04I can show you very simply just one element of it, which is the zooming element.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07You're very used to Google Earth, just clicking a button
0:08:07 > 0:08:10and zooming in on a panel of the Earth's surface.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15What Mercator does in the same way is to produce five step changes of scale through his atlas.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19For example, you can move in from the world map,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22zoom in a bit further you've got a map of the British Isles,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26and zoom in a bit further, you've got a map of Northern Scotland.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29And move in a bit further, a map of the tip of northern Scotland.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34So it had a very rigorous approach
0:08:34 > 0:08:38to presenting geographical information in such a way that it all made sense.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41You could effectively travel
0:08:41 > 0:08:45seamlessly, virtually across the whole planet
0:08:45 > 0:08:49from the comfort of your own library or scholarly studio.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58This was the era of so-called armchair travel,
0:08:58 > 0:09:02when maps were bought as much for entertainment as for navigation.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07And in his single-minded pursuit of science, and accuracy, Mercator
0:09:07 > 0:09:13had omitted a crucial element in map-making - art and beauty.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21If you read contemporary books about maps, you don't actually
0:09:21 > 0:09:27get very many comments about how nice it is to see exactly where Lisbon is.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30This sort of comments you get is how fantastic it is
0:09:30 > 0:09:32when you're sitting by your fireside
0:09:32 > 0:09:36to see the different parts of the world and the people who live there,
0:09:36 > 0:09:41and the birds that have been found and the activities of the people and to learn about the history.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46This was still the expectation, and Mercator failed to satisfy that.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49And that might help to explain why when his atlas was published,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53it didn't enjoy the great sales that might have been expected
0:09:53 > 0:09:56from a work that was genuinely so trail-blazing.
0:09:58 > 0:10:04The atlas, considered too plain and austere for the time, sold badly.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10But when Mercator died, a shrewd Dutch map publisher,
0:10:10 > 0:10:16Jodocus Hondius, bought the copper plates of his maps.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18And with an eye to a beauty-obsessed market,
0:10:18 > 0:10:23Hondius produced new lavish, illustrated editions of the atlas.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25They became instant bestsellers.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28He had reinvented Mercator.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Mercator a man about 500 years ahead of his time,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35and he was a long way ahead of his time.
0:10:35 > 0:10:41He produced a rigorous book of mathematically constructed maps
0:10:41 > 0:10:43to a method that we use today.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47And to see these copper plates,
0:10:47 > 0:10:53to my mind desecrated with cartoon characters around the edges,
0:10:53 > 0:10:59and gigantic ships, that was a step back to medieval map-making.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02That's precisely the kind of nonsense that Mercator
0:11:02 > 0:11:06had scraped from the surface of his copper plates quite deliberately.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10He'd have been spinning in his grave if he'd seen what Hondius was doing,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13I'm absolutely certain. He'd have hated it.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22What Mercator hated, the buyers of atlases loved.
0:11:22 > 0:11:28Hondius' success showed that art mattered just as much as science
0:11:28 > 0:11:30in the new world of the atlas.
0:11:30 > 0:11:37In Cecil Court, London's largest concentration of antiquarian map and print shops,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41buyers' tastes remain remarkably unchanged today.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45From my experience as a map seller in the 21st century,
0:11:45 > 0:11:48there's still a demand for decorative maps.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54Given a choice between a map which is scientifically accurate
0:11:54 > 0:11:58or shows something remarkable for the first time,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01and a map perhaps like Blaeu's,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03which is remarkably luxurious and decorative,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07there's always going to be a group of people who are more interested
0:12:07 > 0:12:09in a decorative map, and I can't blame them.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13Blaeu's map here is a wonderful piece of 17th-century art.
0:12:14 > 0:12:20Joan Blaeu, creator of the some of the most ornate maps of the Dutch Golden Age,
0:12:20 > 0:12:25made his spectacular historical map of Britain in the 1660s.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30It's called the Heptarchy, and shows Britain as it was in Saxon times -
0:12:30 > 0:12:33a nation of seven separate kingdoms,
0:12:33 > 0:12:38each king beautifully rendered in the margins of the map.
0:12:38 > 0:12:45Perhaps to our eyes, some of these images seem a little naive or even inappropriate,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48but they're extraordinarily detailed.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53The attention, the care that's been lavished on these, not just the figures in the foreground,
0:12:53 > 0:12:58but the attention that's been lavished on the background detail as well.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03A quite extraordinary amount of work has gone into this, very little of it
0:13:03 > 0:13:06directly connected to the cartography.
0:13:06 > 0:13:12But I suppose in another sense, all of it helping to understand what the map is about.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26By the mid 1600s, the world of map-making
0:13:26 > 0:13:30had moved from Antwerp to Amsterdam.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39Here, the Dutch had thrown off the yoke of Catholic Spanish occupation.
0:13:39 > 0:13:45Amsterdam was now liberal, democratic, and rich.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Its new wealthy merchant class had cash to spare
0:13:49 > 0:13:52and an eye for prestige objects.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57The arts flourished with painters like Rembrandt and Vermeer.
0:13:57 > 0:14:03The Dutch Golden Age was poised to enter its most spectacular phase,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06and atlases and art would be at the heart of it.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15Art in 17th-century Holland was completely revolutionised.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19I mean, they got rid of the dominance of the Catholic church.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22They'd proclaimed their independence.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24It was almost like a new beginning.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29It was like saying, actually, there's a whole new world out there.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33And we're going to look at it as if for the very first time.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41This is a time when people are looking for somewhere to spend their money.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46They're stopping putting money into churches,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49because that's a very Catholic thing to do, to adorn churches.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53So they're looking for things to spend their money on, and you see that reflected in the Dutch art.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58It begins to become more ordinary scenes, scenes of everyday life,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01scenes of mercantile activity, of things people are familiar with.
0:15:01 > 0:15:07And atlases are an ideal object for them to start putting their money into.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13So while the rich of Italy and Spain commissioned churches,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16the rich of Holland commissioned atlases.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19And in the 1660s, the atlas itself
0:15:19 > 0:15:22became a tool of commerce and politics.
0:15:31 > 0:15:37It is partly about display of wealth and also technical superiority.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40If you bear in mind that something like Blaeu's Atlas Major,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43we're talking about 600 maps in 11 folio volumes,
0:15:43 > 0:15:45was used as a diplomatic gift -
0:15:45 > 0:15:49for example, a set was given to Algiers.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53You have to imagine this book, with its extraordinary broad margins,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55sometimes heightened in gold,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59and it's a symbol of Dutch technical superiority.
0:15:59 > 0:16:04And I think that's one reason why the Dutch were so interested in maps.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16The ultimate gesture in the political world of Dutch map-making was the Klencke Atlas.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Made 350 years ago, it's still ranked by
0:16:21 > 0:16:25the Guinness Book of Records as the largest atlas in the world.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30And it's the jewel in the crown of the British Library's map collection.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37This atlas is something that I've been aware of
0:16:37 > 0:16:41ever since I joined the British Library, because of its sheer size.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52And having the responsibility for it is actually quite awe-inspiring.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59I mean, it is quite something.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01I've been in the library for 35 years.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05I've never had the opportunity to open it in the way that I'm opening it now.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15Created by Dutch sugar merchant Johannes Klencke as a gift for King Charles II
0:17:15 > 0:17:22on his Restoration in 1660, its purpose was to buy royal favour.
0:17:25 > 0:17:30Well, the frontispiece is something which was intended to impress.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33And perhaps the most important thing about it is,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36if you look at the surroundings, they're all gold.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40So it immediately establishes that this is really something splendid,
0:17:40 > 0:17:45and this is further emphasised by the wording of the dedication.
0:17:45 > 0:17:52"Soli Britannico Reduci Carolo Secundo Regum Augustissimo."
0:17:52 > 0:18:00Translated, that means, "To the British son restored to his kingdoms, the most august Charles II."
0:18:04 > 0:18:08This is a golden book meant for a returning son.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19Made up of 41 of the finest Dutch wall maps,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22the Atlas was the ultimate political sweetener
0:18:22 > 0:18:27that would encourage Britain, Klencke hoped, to buy his sugar.
0:18:30 > 0:18:36The King loved it, placing it in his private cabinet of rarities,
0:18:36 > 0:18:44where the diarist John Evelyn saw it, describing "a vast book of maps in a volume near four yards long".
0:18:49 > 0:18:51The atlas is extremely precious.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55It's one of the most important things the British Library has.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59It's also, despite appearances, one of the most fragile.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09To leaf through it like this,
0:19:09 > 0:19:14as carefully as one can, is just a unique experience.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29In a sense, er...
0:19:29 > 0:19:34I shouldn't really say this, but you almost become Charles II. You become Evelyn.
0:19:34 > 0:19:40You're actually seeing the things with their eyes, and, if you like, with the real dimensions.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43This is sort of reliving the past,
0:19:43 > 0:19:45almost 100%.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53For Klencke personally, the map delivered the hoped-for rewards.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57He received a knighthood from a king deeply impressed
0:19:57 > 0:20:00with one of the most lavish gifts of the age.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07The Atlas offered not just the knowledge of the world to a powerful monarch,
0:20:07 > 0:20:12but a dazzling display of the greatest Dutch art of the day.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21When you think, for instance, that the joins on this particular map
0:20:21 > 0:20:27were etched by Pieter Lastman, who taught Rembrandt, it's just superb.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33Look at this - I'm looking now at a map of Germany surrounded by
0:20:33 > 0:20:36beautifully executed views of the different towns of Germany,
0:20:36 > 0:20:43and with tremendous decorative features - the coats of arms, the allegories all around.
0:20:43 > 0:20:49I'm actually not surprised that Vermeer wanted to include this sort of map in his paintings.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53And this map is in much better condition
0:20:53 > 0:20:57than the maps painted by him in his paintings.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02One of the great masters of the Golden Age,
0:21:02 > 0:21:07Vermeer was fascinated by maps, using them in many paintings.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12For art historians, they are not just background decoration,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16but a mark of how maps had become an integral part of the Dutch psyche.
0:21:18 > 0:21:24I think maps appear in so many of Vermeer's paintings because he finds them ravishing.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28I think very often
0:21:28 > 0:21:34when you look at a Vermeer painting, first off you think,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38"This is a domestic scene, it couldn't be more quiet."
0:21:43 > 0:21:47And then suddenly, it's almost like a sort of shock, actually.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51You see that beyond the figures, beyond the tables and the chairs
0:21:51 > 0:21:55and all the rest of it, there is this image hanging on the wall,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59often quite large, often very detailed,
0:21:59 > 0:22:04and it's an image of the rest of the world, effectively.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14And you think to yourself, actually Vermeer must be saying,
0:22:14 > 0:22:20"Although I'm concentrating on these small little episodes in tiny little places,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24"I'm also aware, as are we all in 17th-century Holland,
0:22:24 > 0:22:30"of this massive thing out there, which is stretching all around us,
0:22:30 > 0:22:34"and which we are, in fact, discovering."
0:22:39 > 0:22:44They went out there, they colonised, they were great shippers.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46They would travel the oceans.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48They were very brave, actually.
0:22:52 > 0:22:58You can sense that in the maps themselves, in the paintings, this sense of wonder.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00It's almost like a miracle.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08Nowhere expresses the miracle and wealth of the Golden Age
0:23:08 > 0:23:10like the Burgerzaal in Amsterdam.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17It's a monument to how maps themselves had become central to Dutch culture.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21From the giant hemispheres in the marble floor,
0:23:21 > 0:23:23to the globes in the light fittings.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29And towering above above it all is the figure of Atlas,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32supporting the world on his mighty shoulders.
0:23:42 > 0:23:49But the ultimate achievement of Dutch Golden Age map-making resides here at the British Library.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53An atlas that combines the precision and ambition of Mercator,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58the beauty and art of Blaeu, and the sheer scale of Klencke.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09And here it is, emerging from the British Library's basement
0:24:09 > 0:24:15on a convoy of trolleys, a 24-volume atlas.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Like a hymn of praise to the Golden Age that produced it,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23it covers just one country - the Netherlands.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32Named the Beudeker Collection, after the super-wealthy merchant
0:24:32 > 0:24:37who assembled it, even its bindings are tooled in gold.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46This priceless set of atlases represents wealth and luxury
0:24:46 > 0:24:51on a scale not seen before or since in the history of maps.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59Well, this whole atlas dates from the end of the Golden Age of Dutch map-making.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07And it's the fruit of the development of maps
0:25:07 > 0:25:10in the Netherlands since about 1600.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24So the scale of the maps goes from maps of the whole of the Netherlands,
0:25:24 > 0:25:30to plans of individual buildings and even individual parts of gardens.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35It covers the whole range of human experience.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39And it's produced by people who've had generations of
0:25:39 > 0:25:42experience and training in map-making.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44So this reflects itself in two ways.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49First of all, the quality of the engraving is absolutely superlative.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Secondly, the quality of the colouring is superb.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04I don't think you'll find any atlas
0:26:04 > 0:26:08which has better colouring than these atlases here.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20In the 17th century, the Dutch map trade
0:26:20 > 0:26:22became so dominant in the whole of the world,
0:26:22 > 0:26:29that it became possible for artists to earn a living just colouring maps.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33The results are amazing.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37The colouring was developed to a level of sophistication
0:26:37 > 0:26:41that had never been seen before, and really has never been seen since.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53The maps not only reflect his pride in the Netherlands,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56they show not only the towns and the provinces,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00but also they depict the famous people and their homes,
0:27:00 > 0:27:05and they depict the homes of these famous people because Beudeker knew these people.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08He knew the regents, he was one of them.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12So this is a collection of maps of the Netherlands,
0:27:12 > 0:27:19viewed not only from a standpoint of almost near perfection in map-making,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23but by a person who stood at the pinnacle of society
0:27:23 > 0:27:29and wanted to show just how splendid the nation he lived in was.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40From its beginnings, rolling out maps on the printing presses of Antwerp,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44the atlas revolution of the Golden Age of Mapping
0:27:44 > 0:27:49brought cartography, art and commerce together as never before.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57It changed the way the world looked forever,
0:27:57 > 0:28:03and produced maps the like of which the world may never see again.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11To explore the new world of digital mapping, and to find out more about
0:28:11 > 0:28:17the British Library Map Exhibition, go to bbc.co.uk/beautyofmaps
0:28:28 > 0:28:31Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:31 > 0:28:34E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk