The Maps Collection is a collection of cartographic prints, geographic and topographic images.
These kinds of works are preserved also in other collections of the Library (e.g. R.G. Geografia (Geography); R.G. Storia (History); Barberini Collection; and Chigi Collection). It is therefore impossible to give an exact number of “geographic” prints held in the Library.
This collection was initiated in the first decades of the 1900s with the inception of other General Collections which, like this one, are “open” collections and can thus continue to be added to. The Maps Collection collection is composed of about 1,700 works, many of which are geographic engravings that are preserved in the Prints Cabinet and have not yet been inventoried, so the number will undoubtedly increase over the next few years.
The collection is arranged according to format, consisting of five categories: I, II, Oversized, Scrolls, and Oversized Scrolls.

Stampe Geografiche I format is a collection of about 650 works of medium dimension (many of which are maps of more than one sheet), maps of Italian and European cities and geographic maps from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Among these works are those of Giacomo Gastaldi, Paolo Furlani, Donato Bertelli, Hieronimus Cook, Matteo Florimi, Pirro Ligorio, Abraham Ortelius, Nicolò Beatricetto, Etienne Dupérac, Giovanni Maggi and numerous other authors and editors.

A considerable part of this collection is represented by maps and panoramic views of Rome. There are copies and various editions of many of these works. Some of the 19 best maps of Rome  were placed in Reserve (Riserva- St. Geogr.I 620-638). Among these are the ichnographic maps of Leonardo Bufalini from 1551, of Antonio Tempesta from the 1606 edition (the very rare first edition copy of this map, done in 1593, is in Riserva S.79), of Timanno Van Veen from 1593, Giovanni Battista Falda, from the 1698 edition, Ambrogio Brambilla, Nicolò Beatricetto, Pirro Ligorio and others.

The Stampe Geografiche II format is a collection of about 200 works of small dimension depicting Italian and foreign cities, geographic drawings of local Italian and other European cities from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Among these are works of Giacomo Lauro, Pierre Mortier, Ambrogio Brambilla, Matteo Florimi, Giovanni Maria Cassini, Pietro Ruga and many others.

The Stampe Geografiche S (Stragrandi, or oversized) is a collection of about 550 medium to large sized depictions of cities and geographic drawings from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Among these is the famous map of Venice by Jacopo de Barbari (1500), in addition to numerous other maps of Rome and the Pontifical State.

This collection also includes 50 Scrolls and Oversized Scrolls, among which is a most interesting copy of a watercolor map of Rome by Antonio Tempesta (1664 edition) and a mounted copy of the View of the Spirit of the City of Rome by Giuseppe Vasi (1765).

The Maps Collection of the Library also once included a number of terrestrial and celestial globes, which are now preserved in the exposition halls within the Vatican Museums. The most notable of these is undoubtedly Borgiano’s copper and niello world map, (Borg. XVI). Also in the Vatican Museums now are three celestial and two terrestrial globes by Matthias Greuter (1564-1638), three globes by Jan Blaeu (1596-1673), one by Giovanni Battista Nicolosi and numerous optic instruments.
Many “geographic” engravings are also preserved in the Prints Collection: the Map of Naples by Duca di Noja (Stampe IV.38), a copy of the Map of Rome by G.B. Nolli (Stampe III, 71), and numerous other such works.