English subtitles for clip: File:Preserving Archipelagus Orientalis.ogv

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[Music plays]

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(Narrator) Archipelagus
Orientalis

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is the most important map
documenting Australia's presence

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prior to the arrival
of the British.

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It is the map on which all subsequent
maps of New Holland are based.

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Blaeu's Archipelagus

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has the distinction of including,
for the first time on a map,

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details of the sighting of
Tasmania by Tasman's crew

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aboard the Zeehaen

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on 24th November, 1642.

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(Dr. Martin Woods) It's
a magnificent chart,

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and it actually has nine
individual copper plates,

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and we've got a few
challenges with it.

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You can see it's constructed of

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an intaglio chart with letter-
pressed text around the outside

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telling the story of Tasman's two
voyages and some of the discoveries.

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(Narrator) It's
long been thought

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that only three examples
of the Archipelagus

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had survived since the copper
plates were created in 1659;

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however, this map,

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found in a storage facility
in Sweden in 2010,

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was put up for sale by a small
auction house in Stockholm

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with a modest price listing.

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You can see why the sale room

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might have had doubts
about this rare wall map,

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for even a digital image shows
that sections of the text

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on the map are flaking away, or
already missing from the woven cloth

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on which it's been mounted.

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(Robin Tait) The paper itself
is extremely good; however,

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as you can see with the
outlines of the islands,

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particularly up in Indonesia,

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and also on the outline of
Australia and Tasmania,

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there's quite a significant
browning and cracking

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of the paper support,

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and this is due to the Verdigris
which was a pigment...

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(Dr. Martin Woods) Which
is the pigment. Hmm.

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(Robin Tait)... yes,
that's been used.

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And it's also been used in
the cartouche here, and that

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has contributed to a
lot of the damage

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by the degradation of the paper.

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(Narrator) The survival of this,

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the first large scale
map of New Holland,

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and its acquisition by the
National Library in 2013,

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350 years after its creation,

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represent the triumph of chance
over the vicissitudes of time.

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A few examples of the map
were known worldwide,

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but none had come to light
since the 17th century.

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(Female) There we go. Ooh,
then it's free (Chuckles).

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(Male) Pop. There we go.

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(Robin Tait) So we'll
be collecting all this

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so called fluff and
actually examining it

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under the microscope,

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and that will give us some clues as
to where this item has been stored

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previously.

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It's quite interesting to

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look through what time
deposits on objects.

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(Narrator) A few examples of
the map were known worldwide,

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but none had come to light
since the 17th century.

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The map is not listed
in any catalogues

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we can find since
it was printed,

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with the exception of a listing in
the collection of antiquarian dealer

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Pelle Thulin of
Amsterdam as early as 1950.

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Before this its
provenance is unknown.

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The map's condition probably
reduced its attractiveness

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to the map-collecting market,

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which is naturally drawn
to beauty over substance.

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The National Library,

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already with the largest collection
of Dutch Golden Age mapping

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relating to Australia
and the East Indies,

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was an obvious fit,

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as we're fortunate to have the
conservation skills needed

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to restore some of the
map's former glory.

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The map was offered to the
Library early in 2013,

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and acquired with the assistance
of the federal government.

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It's a rare occasion to
acquire a map such as this,

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and we're delighted that
the stabilisation work

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done by our expert
conservation staff

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means that we can show it to
you in Mapping Our World.