(Worcester)    Wigorniensis Comitatus Sabrinae Fluminis Amaenitate nis

(Worcester) Wigorniensis Comitatus Sabrinae Fluminis Amaenitate nis

Code: 54857

£1,200.00 Approx $1513.24, €1400.23
 

Date: 1579

The first  printed county map of Worcester. Rare Elizabethan map. Copper engraving ; very attractive original hand colouring. Overall sheet size: 53.6cms x 41.1cms; image size: 493mm x 372mm.   Fleur de lys watermark .   Good margins, scale of distance, title in cartouche, royal coat of arms.    Split centrefold with old repair and cracks visible when held up to the light.  Some offsetting of the green hand colouring from the trees so there are green marks middle left from this. Small biro sum on verso.  Nonetheless this is a rare and important map in original condition .

Christopher Saxton was born in Yorkshire in the early 1540s and during his early life gained an enthusiasm for and understanding of map-making under the direction of a local vicar John Rudd, himself a cartographer.

During the reign of Elizabeth I it was William Cecil later to become Lord Burghley, who saw the national importance of effective maps to assist the administration and defence of the realm and with his enthusiasm and the patronage of Thomas Seckford an official in the Elizabethan court, Saxton was commissioned to survey the whole of England and Wales. This was a huge undertaking given the times and the means available to him. The survey began in the early 1570s and by 1574 the first plates had been engraved. By 1577 the whole of England was completed with the survey of Wales being completed the following year.

In the end the atlas comprised of a general map of England and Wales and 34 others of either individual or grouped counties. They were engraved by some of the best engravers of the time and when published they set a standard both in accuracy and decorative detail to the extent that they remained the basis for succeeding county maps for well over the following hundred years. They provide the earliest detailed picture of England and Wales and are a remarkable achievement.

 

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1. 1579. Without the latitude and longitude numerals inserted in the inside edge of the map and in the frame border.
2. 1583. With the latitude and longitude numerals added.