Old European Maps from Europeana

What it is

Europeana is a pan-European portal that pulls together digitized collections from museums, libraries and archives across the continent. It runs hundreds of Pinterest boards, and Maps is one of the best: 60 maps from different centuries, each captioned with where it's held and what license it carries.

The board description is in English, while map titles stay in the original language: Dutch, Spanish, French, German, Latin.

Why we picked it

The spread of sources is the fun part. A 15th-century map of England and Scotland from the British Library, the kingdoms of Granada and Murcia from Willem Blaeu's 1635 atlas via Andalusia's digital library, the province of Zeeland from 1593 held by a Dutch city archive, a 1695 chart of the English Channel from the Dutch National Archives. In one scroll you see how differently Europe drew itself.

Nearly every pin states its rights status, such as Public Domain Marked or CC0, so you know what you can reuse. The board stopped growing around 2019, which doesn't hurt it at all.

Where to start

• Find the map of England and Scotland from 1400 to 1424, one of the oldest here.
• Look at Blaeu's Granata, et Murcia Regna, a textbook piece of Dutch golden-age mapmaking.
• Compare the 1593 map of Zeeland with the 1617 map of the County of Zutphen.
• Don't miss the allegorical sheet of Neptune and Cybele beside a globe.
• Click through any pin to reach the full-resolution record on Europeana.

Who it's for

History buffs and travelers, geography teachers, designers who need old maps without licensing headaches, and anyone happy to spend half an hour studying sea monsters in the margins.

Quick answers

Can I reuse the maps? Most pins are marked Public Domain or CC0, but check the license in each caption.

What language are the captions in? The board text is English; map titles are in their original languages.

How many maps are there? Sixty pins when we checked.