While writing about tiny books a few months ago, I discovered that people can be pretty possessive about superlatives, even when it’s a race to create something so small that it can’t be seen by the naked eye. As a result, it didn’t overly surprise me to find out that people are just as extravagant and competitive about the world’s biggest books.
Maps were usually designed to hang on walls, but Klencke had the 41 large wall maps bound together into one impressive book. This effort paid off for Klencke. According to SmithsonianMag, King Charles, a huge map enthusiast, valued the book as one of his most prized possessions, placing it in his cabinet of curiosities in Whitehall, and he rewarded Klencke with a knightship.
The massive world atlas represents some of the finest 17th-century Dutch cartography, mainly focused on places of interest for King Charles II, like the Netherlands and Britain. Most of the maps in the book are in exceptional condition, considering their age.
According to Mental Floss for about 350 years, Klencke Atlas reigned as the world’s largest atlas, when it was surpassed in 2012 by Earth Platinum Atlas a six-foot monster larger than Klencke Atlas by a mere 30 centimeters on each side.
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