Historical cartography

Historical cartography

The collection contains maps, plans and vedutas from the 16th to the 19th centuries, which were published in various European countries (Czech Republic, France, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Austria, etc.). 

The largest part of the collection consists of various editions and derivatives of the Comenius map of Moravia from the 17th and 18th centuries. Of the 16 printing plates known so far, from which the Comenius map and its derivatives were printed over time, the Přerov collection represents 14 types marked with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, P, S, T, U and two types not yet marked (Müller 1692 and Tassin 1633). A considerable number of copies are represented in the collection by derivatives of Fabricius's map of Moravia, derivatives of Müller's map of Moravia and maps of Moravia from the 19th century.

The most famous of them is the Hané map, called Kuzník's, which was created around 1800. The collection also includes historical maps of other territories, vedutas, plans and engravings. Among them are separate maps of Bohemia, Kladsko, Poland, Silesia, the Habsburg Monarchy, Europe, a drawing of the hemispheres of the earth, vedutas of Polná, Znojmo, Amsterdam, Frankfurt am Main, Elbląg, a plan of Vienna, an undated plan of the railway between Prague and Pilsen, an engraving of the Battle of Bílá Hora and a plan of the Swedish fortifications in Horní Moštěnice from 1643.

The foundation of the collection was laid by František Slaměník, who in 1912 in Berlin purchased the first and until recently the most valuable map of the entire collection from Richard Aron. He also acquired other copies of historical maps. After the Second World War, when the Municipal Museum in Přerov was merged with the Comenius Museum in Přerov, additional maps from the 18th and 19th centuries were added to the collection.

The largest increase was recorded in the collection from the 1990s, when additional copies of Comenius' maps of Moravia were purchased. A very significant purchase was made by a collector and leading expert in Moravian cartography, doc. RNDr. Milan V. Drápela, CSc.

In 2003, a Czech-English-German CD-ROM Maps of Moravia from the 16th to the 18th century was published, which, among other things, contains a catalogue of the collection. In 2004, another trilingual CD-ROM of Fabricius and Comenius' maps of Moravia was published with a catalogue of a selected part of the collection (Comenius' maps of Moravia and one Fabricius map of Moravia). In 2018 and 2022, the collection was presented at an exhibition, which can be borrowed in a traveling version. As of 31 December 2025, the collection contained 208 registration numbers.
Contact person: Helena Kovářová, kovarova@prerovmuzeum.cz