LONDON.- Maps can be works of art, propaganda and indoctrination. Opening on 30 April 2010, “Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art” offers a rare chance to see an unrivalled collection of cartographic masterpieces on paper, wood, vellum, silver, silk and marble, including atlases, maps, globes and tapestries that were intended for display side-by-side with the world’s greatest paintings and sculptures. Drawn from the 4½ million maps held in the British Library’s cartographic collections – the greatest map collection in the world – this new exhibition will showcase 100 maps dating from 200AD to the present day, including 80 of the most impressive wall-maps ever created, most of which have never been seen before. Recreating the settings in which they would have originally been seen – from the palace to the schoolroom, the exhibition reveals how maps express an enormous variety of differing world views, using size