Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd (DNP) and Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF, National Library of France) present "Globes in motion", an exhibition that allows visitors to discover and explore from a new perspective the historical terrestrial and celestial globes of the BnF's rich collection, taking advantage of the 3D digitization program carried out in Paris on 55 valuable pieces in the BnF's Maps and Plans Department. This is the first time such a comprehensive collection of globes has ever been 3D-digitized in the world.

Ten ancient globes, including those appearing as motifs in Vermeer's famous paintings The Geographer and The Astronomer, will be displayed free of charge at DNP Museum Lab (Tokyo) during two exhibition periods: the first from February 19 to May 22, and the second from June 3 to September 4. Next to the original BnF exhibits shown for the first time in Japan, visitors will be able to access contents edited on multimedia systems that enhance the 3D digital data obtained with new image acquisition tools developed by DNP, offering a unique and enjoyable opportunity to appreciate and explore the globes.

Exhibits and multimedia displays

Major Exhibits

1st Period: Hondius Celestial Globe          2nd Period: Welser Terrestrial Globe

Presentation Room

Multimedia system "Stargazing: Exploring a celestial globe"

Multimedia system "A Galaxy of globes to discover"

General Information

BnF  ×  DNP Museum Lab

Exhibition "Globes in Motion"

About BnF, DNP and the Globes 3D digital project

Founded in the 14th century as a Royal Library, the BnF is one of the world's leading libraries, with collections and holdings for preservation, enhancement, and diffusion comprising more than 40 million documents that range from manuscripts and published works to photographs and maps. A pioneer in granting electronic public access to the collections, its digital library Gallica contains over 3 million documents available for free consultation.

For its part, DNP is active in building cultural heritage digital imagery archives in high-resolution format. Through its "DNP Museum Lab", it has engaged in partnerships with museums all over the world to develop innovative art appreciation systems that allow visitors to become familiar with the diverse range of artistic and cultural expression. The joint "Louvre-DNP Museum Lab" project, launched in 2006 with the Musée du Louvre, enabled the development of multimedia resources taking advantage of IT technologies, in order to offer an enriching dialogue between the artwork and the viewer. Moreover, at DNP Kyoto Uzumasa Cultural Heritage Gallery, which deals with issues of preservation and transmission of cultural heritage, high definition real-size replicas of Important Cultural Properties are produced, as accurate reproductions of the originals in long-lasting materials. 4K image archive documentaries of Kyoto's tangible and intangible cultural heritage are also produced and disseminated there.

In July 2015, DNP and BnF concluded an agreement on a skills based patronage for the 3D digitization of a selection of 55 globes from the library's collection and for the sharing of these images with a wider public. For this project, DNP custom-developed tools that allow remarkable 3D modeling using images taken with the highest performing digital cameras in the world (approx. four hundred images per globe). The digitization took place in Paris. The present Tokyo exhibition is not the only endeavor to disseminate this data widely, as it will soon be available online on Gallica, while another exhibition on the BnF precinct in Paris is also scheduled. DNP wishes to find new applications for the 3D digitization techniques nurtured for this project, and to search for business opportunities for the digitized globe data in various formats (product development, digital contents business, etc.).

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