Introduction

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (www.bsb-muenchen.de) is one of the world's largest and most renowned general and research libraries. Besides some of the world's most famous and most precious works of mankind's written cultural heritage, the library also holds one of the most important collections of maps in Europe. With its new app ‘Bayern in historischen Karten’, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek now presents the great historical cartographic works of the Free State of Bavaria in the form of a location-based service for mobile use.

For the app, five important cartographic works, comprising over 260 map sheets from the 6th to the 19th century, have been digitized and georeferenced in their entirety: the famous geographic tablets (Landtafeln) by Phillipp Appian from 1568, the cartographic works by Frederik de Wit (1670–90) and Franz Ludwig Güssefeld (1782–96), the Topographical Atlas of the Kingdom of Bavaria (Topographischer Atlas vom Königreich Baiern) (1812–67) and the sheets of the Map of the German Empire (Karte des Deutschen Reiches) relating to Bavaria (1876 et seq.). The maps illustrate also the increasing precision of land surveying. This compilation offers a fascinating journey of discovery through the topography and history of Bavaria. On the one hand, this is the first time that the historical maps of Bavaria can be viewed on mobile devices in every detail in high resolution. On the other hand, and more importantly, they can be discovered interactively with the aid of multimedia applications, proceeding from the specific current position of the app's user. Thanks to the georeferencing of the cartographic works, the current position of the app user – where he or she is currently located, smartphone or tablet in hand – is displayed directly on the historical map: the app consequently works like a historical version of Google Maps. The viewer of the digital maps can find his current position directly on the historical cartographic work he has called up. By using a time line, the user can also navigate seamlessly between the various maps.

Points of interest

The selected map offers manifold points of interest in the surroundings of the viewer's current position, providing texts, location data, historical image materials and multimedia applications in connection with the municipalities, monasteries, castles, palaces and art monuments in the surrounding areas.