Ipswich to Norwich by John Ogilby

Code: 54393

Date: 1698

No 74. Long title: Ipswich to Norwich.The road from Ipswich com.Suffolk to Norwich and thence to Cromer on the sea coast com.Norfolk containing 66 miles 4 furlongs.
From the Cornhill in Ipswich to Claydon 4m.2fur. to Thwaite 12m. to Osmonston 7.4. to Long Stratton 9m. to the city of Norwich 11m. to Alesham 12m.2f. and to Cromer 10m.4f.Copper engraving with later hand colouring.Highly decorative cartouche with swags of fruit and royal coat of arms centref below. . Overall size : 48.8cms.x 39.3cms. Image size : 437mm x 325mm.The route is shown in six strips, mile by mile, showing every town, village, wood and milestone along the way.    Each strip has a compass rose showing north . Very good condition apart from some archival marginal repair to cracks at bottom margin edge and one wormhole repair at left hand edge of sheet on verso and loss of extreme top right margin tip.

John Ogilby is regarded by many as the most important name in British Cartography after Christopher Saxton.  He was born in Edinburgh in 1600 and led a varied life embracing many different careers. He started life as a dancing teacher and followed this with a spell as tutor to the children of the Earl of Stafford.
Next he went to Dublin where he ran a theatre successfully until the Civil War in 1641.  He nearly lost his life in the Irish troubles and returned to London destitute. After a time in Cambridge as a literary translator he found favour at Court and was responsible for organising the coronation revels.  After another sojourn in Dublin he set up business as a printer and publisher in London but this venture was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.  After the fire he was appointed one of four "sworn viewers" who were ordered to survey those parts of the city that had been destroyed, in order to establish rights of ownership. The King appointed him Royal Cosmographer and Geographic Printer.
 Encouraged by the King's interest in the project Ogilby began work on Britannia, the first national road atlas.  The first edition of 100 strip maps appeared in 1675 funded in part by a lottery organised by Ogilby. Unfortunately Ogilby died in the year of publication and so the rest of the project was never completed. He established the Statute Mile of 1,760 yards as a national unit of measurement, prior to his work there were three different mile lengths in use.

See Reference works by J. Booth, R.A. Skelton and Thomas Chubb.