Provenance of Albertin de Virga’s Map
The map was discovered in a second hand bookshop in 1911 in Srbrenica, a Bosnian town near Dubrovnik. Mr. Albert Figdor, a map collector who discovered it, took it to the Austrian State University in Vienna (Austria then ruled Bosnia) The map was examined by the leading cartographer Doctor Professor Franz Von Weiser who authenticated the map in 1912 in his thesis Die Weltcarte des Albertin de Virga (The World Map of Albertin de Virga.) The map was then photographed and authenticated photos reached the collection of the Egyptian Prince Youssuf Kamal. This collection is now in the British Library.
Mr Figdor decided to auction the map in 1932 but it was stolen. It has never reappeared in its original form. The map was brought to the public attention by Leo Bagrow in the History of Cartography in 1951, then again in the 1992 issue of Cartographica (Vol. 29, No. 2.) and finally in 1996 by Dr. Gunnar Thompson in his book The Friar’s Map. I am indebted to Dr. Thompson for bringing the map to my attention and for his invaluable research. Dr. Thompson was the first scholar to appreciate its immense significance.
