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This month, we're celebrating the spirit of travel and exploration with the launch of our new Travelling Through History exhibition. Journey to the North Pole, book your ticket on a 1930s car trip through Eastern Europe or flip through hundreds of historic postcards, maps and guidebooks.

There are over 500 items to explore. India, Japan, Central Africa and the South Pacific are some of the destinations represented, with objects dating from the 1400s to modern times. Many objects are being displayed online for the first time. They were collected from 13 of Europe's most prestigious libraries and digitised for the EuropeanaTravel project.

Travelling Through History has hundreds of maps, images, books and sounds to explore. Expert curators have provided information about each object's history, so you can learn even more about the fascinating items on display. Here are just a few of the gems to discover:

Bohemia, Rose of all Centuries, Covered with Blood

This rose-shaped map is a beautiful depiction of 17th century Bohemia. It shows the rose growing from Vienna (the centre of the Habsburg Empire at that time) and spreading its petals to encompass much of the modern-day Czech Republic. The map is topped with a crown and the motto of Austrian emperor Leopold I: Iustitia et pietate (justice and piety).

A poetic text is also written on the map: A most graceful rose grew in the Hercynian forest, with a lion next to her, standing guard in armour. The rose � a land made from Mars' blood and not from that of Venus. It's worth you, rose! Auster's clouds enter the Hercynian orchards. Under the rose now silent, may dreadful guns die down! The rose of Czechie, for centuries covered with blood, where more than 80 battles were fought."

The map was initially designed by Kristian Vetter for Bohuslav Balbin's book of national history and geography, Epitome historica rerum Bohemicarum. Wolfgang Kilian engraved the map in 1668.

Theuerdank

This elaborate book gives an allegorical description of an adventurous trip made by the German emperor, Maximilian I. It is the story of his journey, written in verse, and a romantic tale because Maximilian I was travelling to woo his future wife, Mary of Burgundy.

The resulting book is considered to be one of the most beautiful illuminated manuscripts of the 16th century. It was supposed to be the second of a three-volume series but the trilogy was never finished. Nevertheless, Theuerdank is one symbol of Maximilian I's strong support of the arts and sciences.

This images comes from a copy dating back to 1519. It is written in German, and held in the National Library of Poland

Car Tour by Sir Arthur Evans

Archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941) travelled extensively, starting in the 1870s when he explored Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Evans later became famous for his archaeological excavations of Knossos Palace in Crete in 1899-1907.

The photos in this leather-bound photo album record a tour by car of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina taken by Evans in 1932. There are 21 black and white photos in total, and this particular picture shows the departure from Zagreb on June 9th.

The album was bequeathed to the School of Slavonic and East European Studies when Evans died in 1941.

Semang Kensiu

The Semang are an ethnic group of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. They traditionally lived mainly in the tropical rain forests of the mountains as hunter-gatherers.

This impressive photograph of a group of Semang Kensiu men and boys was taken by Paul Schebesta in 1924.

At this time, the Semang lived a nomadic life, attached great importance to their freedom of movement and disapproved of being settled. They felt strongly connected with nature and were able to gather their food through hunting and from the woods.

The photographer, Paul Jochamin Schebesta (1887-1968), was a German theologian, missionary and ethnologist.

Albuminscriptie van Renius a Deipholt uit Oost-Friesland

This is an image from the album of the physician Bernardus Paludanus (1550-1633). It was created by Remus von Diepholt, a member of the East Frisian nobility, and shows a Paduan noblewoman alongside von Diepholt's coat of arms.

On August 10th, 1576 he pointed out to Paludanus the relativity of life. "Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus / Et certam praesens vix habet hora fidem." In English it means: "Heaven makes sport of human affairs, and the present hour gives no sure promise of the next."

The entry from von Diepholt is just one of 1,900 contributions in the album; both from visitors to Paludanus' collection of travel curiosities in Enkhuizen and entries Paludanus gathered on his own travels. While in Italy, Paludanus commissioned artists (who were not all that gifted) to paint some 145 costume illustrations and genre scenes in the book. The images they created vary from Venetian beauties and a gondola voyage to exotic soldiers carrying a sabre.

The European Library already gives you access to the resources of Europe's 48 national libraries, and soon our collection will expand to include 5 million objects from prestigious European research libraries. The new resources include Ottoman manuscripts, Spanish civil war photographs and thousands of theses, journals and academic articles. Here's a sneak preview of some of the treasures that will be added to our database.

The Birth of Iskandar

This ornate horoscope shows the position of the heavens at the moment Prince Iskandar, grandson of the Turkman Mongol conqueror Tamerlane, was born on April 25, 1384.

It is part of the Wellcome Library collection and comes from the 'Book of the Birth of Iskandar' by Imad al-Din Mahmud al-Kashi.

Plan of San Marco in Venice

This is a plan of Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice, with sketches concerning the dating of the mosaics. It was created by Otto Demus, an Austrian art historian who helped to restore and document the mosaics of Saint Mark's Basilica.

He published a book about his work on the mosaics of Saint Mark's Basilica: The Mosaics of San Marco in Venice. Demus was also an expert on Byzantine mosaics.

The original of this plan is held at the University of Vienna.

Queen Marie of Romania

Queen Marie of Romania was born in England in 1875. She was just 17 years old when she married the heir to the Romanian throne, Prince Ferdinand, in 1893.

This image was taken in 1907, seven years before she and her husband became King and Queen of Romania. Because of World War I, they were not crowned until 1922.

Marie made significant contributions to the war effort. She volunteered as a nurse for the Red Cross and she wrote a book to raise funds for the charitable organisation.

This photograph comes from the Romanian Academy Library.

Libraries in Japan have been struggling to recover from the damaged caused by March's devastating earthquake.

Buildings and books were damaged, and libraries have suffered electricity cuts. Many libraries, including the National Diet Library in Tokyo, have been forced to cut back their services or close altogether.

The full scope of the damage is not yet clear, but recent articles in the American Libraries Magazine and Library Journal describe some of the many problems that Japanese libraries are facing.

IFLA is also maintaining a list of resources that show how libraries are coping.

These are some of the most popular searches on The European Library website in the past month.

1. Tornike Estavi: A book from our Reading Europe exhibition about this famous retired Georgian general and monk has recently been showing up among the top searches on The European Library website. Estavi is well known as a founder of the formerly Georgian Orthodox Iviron Monastery on Mt Athos, in modern-day northeastern Greece.

2. Urbino Bible: This magnificent manuscript is held in the Vatican Library. It was commissioned by Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, at the atelier of Vespasiano da Bisticci, the renowned Florentine bookseller who was the primary provider of manuscripts for the Urbino library.

3. Codex Gigas: One of the treasures of the Swedish National Library is the Codex Gigas or Devil's Bible; so named because it contains a large, full-page portrait of the devil.

Launch your own search!

This video features content from the Travelling Through History exhibition.

Play the video and enjoy the exhibition highlights in just two minutes.

Install The European Library Google Gadget on your iGoogle page, to easily explore the Reading Europe exhibition.

Just click here.

This newsletter was put together by Friedel Grant and Aubéry Escande of the European Library Office. It includes images and curatorial information from the Moravian Library in Brno (Bohemian Rose), National Library of Poland (Theuerdank), University College London (Car Tour by Sir Arthur Evans), Austrian National Library (Semang Kensiu), Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Albuminscriptie van Renius a Deipholt), Wellcome Library (Birth of Iskandar), University of Vienna (Plan of San Marco in Venice) and Romanian Academy Library (Queen Marie of Romania).