Map collections and archives in the Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, old maps, town-plans, atlases and globes are kept in archives, in libraries that have historical collections, in museums and in private collections. The basic survey of public institutions is provided by Lexikon mapových archivů a sbírek České republiky [Lexicon of map archives and collections in the Czech Republic], Eva Semotanová, Robert Šimůnek (eds), Prague 2000 (only in Czech). The majority of the collections is accessible to the public, some of them only in limited extent however (as not all of them have not been fully inventoried, catalogued). The current situation is described in Abdulla Azzani, “Mapové sbírky ve vědeckých knihovnách a archivech České republiky” [Map collections in academic libraries and archives of the Czech Republic], Historická geografie 33, pp. 432-75 (abstract in English). In recent years many collections and libraries were made accessible through electronic catalogues, and - thanks to on-going digitalization - some maps can also be studied on-line (whether in the form of raster images or on map servers).
The largest collection of old maps in the Czech Republic is kept in the National Archives. It contains printed maps of Bohemia and Moravia from the 16th to the 20th century as well as a number of manuscript maps created by the initiative of agencies with regional or national authority. They are often manuscript, small-scale, maps, which were supposed to record a disputed border between two manors or demarcate, in detail, regional boundaries, record alterations to river banks and mining activities. There are also unique collections of manuscript maps, which were supposed to document the distance of Jewish houses from Christian churches (1729) or maps, which served as appendices to land registers. Numerous maps contain also extensive cadastral collections - Berní rula, Tereziánský, Josefský and Stabilní katastr and Archive of Cadastral Maps.
The erstwhile state map collection was founded around 1920 by professor Václav Švambera with the ambition to become a national map collection, one that would serve as a central location for
the cartographic riches of the newly founded Czechoslovakia. The collection was located in the new Faculty of Sciences of the Charles University and was, gradually, expanded by annexing collections from the Geographical Institute of the of Charles University, Geographical Institute of the Prague German University, Department of Cartography, Geographical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, National Library, National Museum as well as items confiscated from various castle libraries after the Second World War. In addition to maps and plans (including manuscript ones), there are also atlases, cosmographical and topographical books and a number of globes. At the present time, the collection is being catalogued; the records are accessible through an electronic catalogue.
This map collection was founded in the early 1930s as a part of the State Historical Institute in Prague. The collection has a partial printed catalogue Katalog Mapové sbírky Historického ústavu Akademie věd České republiky do roku 1850 [Catalogue of the map collection of the Historical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic until 1850], Prague 2002, Eva Semotanová, Robert Šimůnek (eds) (abstract in English); at the present time, it is being digitalized and an electronic catalogue is under construction.
The collection includes maps of the Czech Republic and its predecessors (including maps depicting the demarcation of borders of Czechoslovakia after 1918 and maps of administrative divisions, printed town plans as well as maps from the third military survey. From 1939 on, the State Historical Institute kept records of cartographic sources, on which basis František Roubík prepared his Soupis map českých zemí [Survey of maps of the Czech lands], – a fundamental overview of the cartographic riches of the Czech Republic – which is now unfortunately outdated.
The Collection of maps and plans of the Municipal Archives of Prague, which was removed from the Collection of plans and depictions of Prague, which included among others also photographs and prints, contains printed and manuscript maps of Prague as a whole, maps of its individual parts as well as large-scale plans depicting individual buildings. The panoramic maps of Prague from the 17th to the 19th century form the oldest part of the collection; they are almost exclusively printed, created without geodesical basis. Hand-drawn (large scale) maps from this period often remained pasted into town books or became a part of charter collections. Juttner’s plan (1816), plans of Prague and of its individual districts by Alfred Hurtig (last third of the nineteenth century), multi-leaf orientation map of the royal capital Prague and adjacent municipalities (1909-1914) on the scale of 1:5000 and orientation maps of Prague of the scale 1:5000 in several versions including preparatory documents (1938-45/6-1948), traffic and administrative maps of the capital and orthophoto map from around 2000 are among the basic panoramic plans. The collection also contains maps of the fixed land registry largely in later variants of some parts of Prague and municipalities in central Bohemia and other cadastral maps of parts of Prague, panoramic as well as thematic (including regulatory and development) plans of individual districts, public spaces, infrastructure (sewers), archeological excavations and individual buildings, founts, monuments etc. The Collection is in part organized and digitalized.
Additional cartographic material kept by the Archive of Prague contains largely collection of development archive, collection of manuscripts and collections of charters.
In Moravia, there are three large map collections. The first one is kept in the Moravian Library (Moravská zemská knihovna). This institution keeps the Collection of Bernard Pavel Moll, a 18th-century diplomat, which has been made on-line accessible only recently.
In the Research Library in Olomouc (Vědecká knihovna v Olomouci), the map collection is being degitalized.
Texts by Eva Chodějovská
Translated by Marcela K. Perett
