Only at the National Library of Australia

Mapping our World is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see rare and unique cartographic treasures from around the world. Discover how European explorers unravelled the secrets of the great south land.

Highlights of the exhibition include the magnificent Fra Mauro Map of the World; the remarkable Boke of Idrography presented to Henry VIII; an intricate world map by the Benedictine monk Andreas Walsperger (1448); a fifteenth-century Ptolemy manuscript; magnificent and controversial ‘Dieppe’ charts; one of only four surviving copies of Mercator’s groundbreaking 1569 projection, and original manuscript charts by Pacific navigators including Louis de Freycinet, James Cook and Matthew Flinders.

Help us preserve Blaeu's 'Archipelagus Orientalis' (1663) 

Help us preserve Joan Blaeu's rare wall map, Archipelagus Orientalis, sive Asiaticus(Eastern and Asian archipelago) 1663 - one of only four surviving copies in the world.

Overview of 'Mapping Our World' at the National Library of Australia