Night Maps is an exhibition “exploring the visual and intellectual history and the real-world consequences of mapping the night sky” at the Warburg Institute in London.

Many of these objects are on public display for the first time. Highlights include a 13th-century William de Conches manuscript illustrating the relationship between earth and sky; the first printed edition of Ptolemy’s Almagest; a monumental Chinese blue celestial map from 1822; one of seven known examples of the allegorical ‘Christian Knight’ Map which inspired John Milton’s Paradise Lost; a rare 18th-century Nepalese bhūgola or ‘earth globe’; and an engraved stone cosmological object from the ancient Valdivian culture of Ecuador dating to 2000 BC.  

The exhibition will also include rare globes and documents on loan from Royal Museums Greenwich, and photographs and other materials from the UCL/NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility, as well as material drawn from the Warburg Institute’s collections.

The exhibition opened on 21 October 2026 and runs until 17 April 2027. Free admission. [Maps Mania]