January 2010 | Jonathan Shipley

If You Only Had the World's Largest Coffee Table...


Klencke-Atlas-001.jpg
...Then you could heave upon it the largest book in the world. You'd need more than yourself, however, to lift it. You'd need your family, extended even. At the British Library it takes six people to hoist up the largest book in the world, the Klencke Atlas, a tome that was presented to King Charles II. It's now 350 years old and the public has never seen it with its pages open. That's about to change, however, as the British Library will display it in a map exhibition opening soon.

The Guardian has more, here.