Magnificent Maps - I wanna go see ;)

Opening in April 2010, Magnificent Maps showcases the British Library's unique collection of large-scale display maps, many of which have never been exhibited before. Here the show's curators focus on some of the show's highlights – and explain why maps are about far more than geography

Nazi propaganda, in French!

Diogo Homem, A Chart of the Mediterranean Sea, 1570

Nicolo Longobardi / Manuel Dias, Chinese Terrestrial Globe, 1623, wood, lacquer and paint: This, the earliest Chinese globe, was constructed by leading Jesuits for the Chinese Ming rulers, and is believed to have come from an Imperial palace near Beijing. In the collections of western monarchs it would have appeared an exotic and unusual object. But in China too, it would have been very unusual, since it contained western concepts of geography quite at variance with the China-centric nature of contemporary cartography. In its treatment of eclipses and meridians, however, the globe draws on ideas developed in China far earlier than in the west

Gallery at The Guardian