Geographical Curiosities

Abstract

DURING the meeting of the International Geographical Congress at Paris in 1875, the National Library opened an exhibition supplementary to that which was held in the Tuileries. Although very rich in documents and modern geographical works, the great national institution did not wish to show simply a duplicate of the collections exhibited at the Tuileries, and it therefore brought cut only ancient and rare objects which the rules of the establishment wisely forbid to leave the building. Thus it showed to the public neither its great topographical maps, such as those of Cassini, van der Maelen, &c., nor its recent atlases, its numerous geological maps, its hydro-graphic charts of the French, English, and other Admiralty Departments, But, thanks to M. Leopold Delisle, Administrator-General of the National Library, and to M. E. Cortambert, Librarian of the Section of Maps and Plans, there was exhibited in the magnificent Mazarin Gallery a collection unique of its kind, and to which the Departments of Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Engravings contributed. The objects exhibited belonged. generally to Group IV., devoted to Historical Geography and the History of Geography, and comprised, besides ancient and modern works and MSS. treating of geography and its history, ancient maps and globes, instruments used by ancient geographers, astrolabes, sundials, &c.