uispeccoll:

rachelfershleiser:

erikkwakkel:

The biggest book in the world

Standing 1.75 meters tall (almost 6 ft), this is the biggest book you’ll ever read - and the biggest ever produced. It takes six people to carry; flipping the page is like an exercise at the gym. A gift from the Amsterdam professor Johannes Klencke, the so-called Klencke Atlas was made in 1660 for the English King Charles II. The large maps were meant to be cut out and pasted on the wall, which never happened. It is a beautiful book - but definitely unsuitable for taking to the beach this summer.

Pic: Klencke Atlas, kept in the British Library. More about this giant in this newspaper article and this short BBC movie. A British Library online exhibit about Atlases is found here.

Attention U of I!

Oh goodness, i am still investigating our LARGEST book, but now I already have an inferiority complex. Our largest book will be tiny by comparison…