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September 7th, 2008

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Rare maps a surprising discovery

Just five known works of Catalan cartographer unearthed until now

By Jana Donovan
For The Prague Post
April 18th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO

The maps by Jaume Olives date to 1563 and feature colors "as fresh as if someone painted it one week ago," says Jiří Glonek, one of the archivists at Olomouc's library to have found the sheets in a plain white file.

Imagine you move a dusty old file and it turns out to contain a priceless atlas. Or that you pick up a couple of old boards in your shed and a set of hand-drawn maps falls into your hands.

These sound like scenes from a movie script, but recent discoveries show how true to life such findings can be, in a country famed for its rich history. Indeed, two valuable sets of centuries-old maps have been discovered in the Czech Republic in recent months. And, sure enough, they have quickly stirred the interest of both experts and the public.

“Such discoveries are quite unique. Something like this does not happen very often,” says Eva Semotanová, a historian from the Czech Academy of Sciences, about both recent findings.

In February, a man who prefers to remain anonymous found a colorful pen-and-ink atlas behind wooden boards in a shed near Písek, south Bohemia.

The maps were purchased by Miloš Říha, a historian and caretaker of the Kynžvart Chateau. He says the 18th-century map set was made for Franz von Metternich, father of 19th-century Austrian Chancellor Clemens Wenzel von Metternich, and was lost in the vicinity in the aftermath of World War II.

Říha speculates that after the Kynžvart Chateau became the U.S. Embassy after the war, someone took and hid the maps, which had been in an outside building not managed by the embassy. “Why? We can only guess. … It could be a theme for a novel,” he says.

COURTESY PHOTO

This set, by an unknown cartographer, depicts the estate of Franz von Metternich and includes names of paths, hills, hunting grounds and even forest species.

The maps, by an unknown cartographer, depict the Metternich estate and include names of paths, hills, hunting grounds and forest species.

Those maps were discovered just months after another set of long-forgotten maps were found in Olomouc Library’s archives. Rostislav Krušínský, along with fellow archivist Jiří Glonek, discovered nautical maps when they were moving the library’s archives to a different building last summer. The colleagues recalled finding the sheets in a plain file that suggested nothing about the gems inside. “The description of the file said ‘some maps,’ ” Glonek recalls. “Yet nobody ever paid any attention to it.”

Krušínský’s voice betrays the excitement he felt over the find. “It is thrilling when you hold it, and you don’t know [whether] it could be something amazing or something quite ordinary,” he said.

The maps are far from commonplace. Drawn by famous Catalan cartographer Jaume Olives in 1563, the set’s rarity makes the find especially valuable. Only five other sets of maps by Olives, who drew maps for the nobility of Europe, are known to have survived. Barcelona, New York City and Florence each have their own Olives maps.Olomouc’s set comprises seven finely decorated pages in bright colors depicting the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Lands are painted in gold and cities drawn as coats of arms.

“The colors are as fresh as if someone painted it one week ago,” Glonek says.

The maps also capture legendary lands, such as Illa de Brasil, Fristlanda and Estillanda. “The cartographers’ nightmare was to have an empty space on their maps. And so legends were oftentimes based on some fisherman’s description only,” Glonek says.

It remains a mystery how the Olives atlas, which Glonek says appeared in Olomouc in the 18th century, ended up forgotten in the library’s archives.

Putting the maps to use

Clearly, the discoveries of both sets of maps are of historical interest. However, they may also have practical implications in the Kynžvart region as well as for Olomouc.

In Kynžvart, for example, the maps could aid future economic planning, as they contain missing information about the landscape and surrounding buildings before the chateau was rebuilt in the 19th century.

“Now we know, for instance, where there used to be ponds and such, and that it will be difficult to build on these spots,” says Roman Procházka of the National Heritage Institute in Loket, west Bohemia. Copies of the map will be offered to landscape experts, regional historians and forest biologists.

Semotanová says the inclusion of Czech lands in the Metternich maps gives them special importance for the Czech Republic. “The Olives maps are important for the whole world heritage. Yet, the Czech lands are not even depicted there. The Metternich maps have, on the other hand, big importance for this country.”

The maps may also help attract the public. Říha plans to display them at the Kynžvart Chateau beginning in September.

Meanwhile, in Olomouc, Glonek and Krušínský believe the newly discovered treasure will help promote the Olomouc library, which lacks the prestige of Prague’s National Library at the Klementinum.

“I hope researchers finally realize that the Klementinum library is not the only one that contains interesting works,” Krušínský says.

Jana Donovan can be reached at news@praguepost.com

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