For history/map buffs.

My grandfather passed away in 2005, and my grandmother this year on Mother's Day. My grandfather had a collection of gorgeous antique maps on his wall in his study. We went through the house to determine who would get what, and I had always had my eye on the map of Germany, mainly because that was where he was from. I was curious of the origins of the map, and took it to a well-known antique map and print gallery here in Houston to examine.

It's an original hand-colored map by Abraham Ortelius, a well-known Flemish cartographer who is believed to be the creator of the first modern atlas. He is also believed to be the first person to imagine that the continents were joined together before drifting to their present positions. As you can tell, it's written in Latin. It's also very, VERY old. This map was created in 1571.

Upper left corner detail.

Upper right corner detail.

Bohemia.

Crest detail in bottom right corner.

Crest detail in bottom left corner.

I inherited a 442-year-old map from my grandfather and I think it's incredibly awesome.