The Library has the first atlas with the first Czech map of Bohemia. This is in the 1545 Muenster edition of Ptolemy's Geographia. It also has the first independent map of Moravia (Fabricius, 1568), which appears in Ortelius' Theatrum orbis terrarum (Antwerp, 1570), and the first Ortelius atlas with Lazius and Sambucus maps showing Slovakia (1579).
A particularly precious item in the Library's collection is Augustin Herman's extremely rare map of Virginia and Maryland of 1670, which was acquired in 1960. Augustin Herman was a Czech emigre who came to America via Holland. Herman's map was entitled Virginia and Maryland as it is planted and inhabited this present year 1670 surveyed and exactly drawne by the only labour & endeavor of Augustine Herrman bohemiensis.
The Geography and Map Division (G&M) has custody of the largest and most comprehensive cartographic collection in the world with collections numbering over 5.5 million maps, 100,000 atlases, 8,000 reference works, over 5000 globes and globe gores, 3,000 raised relief models, over 130,000 microfiche/film, and a large number of cartographic materials in other formats.
