South Wales
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South Wales in good detail. William Camden's "Britannia" proved one of the longest lasting descriptions of the country being published, with maps of each county, from 1607 into the early nineteenth century. Camden's text, almost one hundred years after its first, Latin, edition, was revised by Dr Edmund Gibson of Oxford University and illustrated with newly commissioned maps by Robert Morden, the well-regarded London map maker whose output already included sheet maps, atlases and geographical descriptions of the world and its parts. Morden's work was compiled from comparison of the best maps of each area then available, the recent coastal surveys of Greenvile Collins and corrections supplied by local landowners. The consequence was a series of maps described by the editor, Gibson, in glowing terms ... "Upon the whole, we need not scruple to affirm, that they are by much the fairest and most correct of any that have yet appear'd". The maps were clearly and elegantly engraved and, despite decoration limited to the simple rococo shell-like title cartouches, attractively presented. Many counties are shown with three scale bars representing, before the adoption of the statute mile, the local 'vulgar' or'computed' distances of great, middle and small miles. Graduated borders measure latitude and longitude (from St.Paul's Cathedral) and minutes of time from London. The work's popularity is shown in the several editions published over nearly 80 years and in the charm of these 17th century maps.
This example trimmed at each side with replacement, but no map detail missing. A very decorative example.
region: Wales Maps & Charts
mapmaker:
R. Morden
place and date of publication:
London 1695-
medium and colour:
copperplate, Coloured
ref:
41199
size in mm: 350 by 430mm (13.75 by 17 inches). literature: Skelton, British County Maps, 117. Price: £ 300 |
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