The Prague Map
Cases unlock in order, like levels. This is case 68 of 100.
Baroque Library of Saint Norbert, Prague Old Town, 5:40 pm. The Map of Master Jakub, a parchment from 1417 and the oldest plan of the city, has vanished from the reading room display case.
At 5:00 pm the librarian locked the map in the case. At 5:12 pm the fire alarm went off and everyone went out to the courtyard. There was no fire. At 5:25 pm the case was open and empty.
The doors were shut at 5:30 pm and no one left with the map: bags and coats were searched. It is still inside the building.
Three people knew the reading room inside out. One of them took advantage of the alarm.
The library director's office, shelves up to the ceiling, a smell of old leather and wax.
Suspects
Bohumil KratochvílHead librarian, 64
Radka VondráčkováCollection restorer, 38
Ferenc HalászVisiting researcher, historian of cartography, 46
The real case
Forbes Smiley and the maps stolen from libraries
United States and United Kingdom, 2005
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
Forbes Smiley was a respected dealer in antique maps, consulted by libraries and collectors. In June 2005, a staff member at Yale's Beinecke Library found a utility knife blade on the floor and, on checking the atlases Smiley had consulted, saw that pages were missing.
He admitted to cutting 97 maps from libraries at Yale, Harvard, New York, Boston and London, using his access as a researcher, and selling them to collectors to cover debts. He was sentenced in 2006 to three and a half years in prison; some of the maps were never recovered.
The game borrows the historian of cartography who steals maps from the library that hosts him as a researcher. Characters, crime and outcome are fiction.
Sources
Case glossary
Words from this case you might not know.
- cartography
- The science and art of making maps.