From Radio Praha: Rare 16th century nautical atlas found in Olomouc.

Historians in the department of old prints and manuscripts at the Research Library in Olomouc have made a surprising discovery. While moving a safe containing rare documents to a new building, they found a seven-page nautical atlas that was hand-made in 1563. The richly coloured parchment with gold and silver linings shows the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the northern part of the Atlantic. Made by the Catalan cartographer Jaume Olives, there are only five others in the world – in Barcelona, New York, Florence, Milan, and Valenciennes in France. I spoke to the Olomouc Library’s Petra Kuncova:

"Jaume Olives was a famous producer of portable maps in the sixteenth century and he was a member of a very famous Catalan family of cartographers. The family came from the island of Mallorca and moved to Italy from time to time. We don’t know exactly why the atlas was made but it was probably commissioned by a rich or important person because only someone wealthy could pay for something so unique." [continue, see photos]