The first printed map of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Rutland
[Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Rutland] Northampton Bedfordiae Cantabrigiae Huntingdoniae et Rutlandiae Comitatuum
Vicinarumq. Regionum partium adiacent nova veraq. Descriptio. A. D. 1576
London,
Christopher Saxton,
1579
Double-page engraved map, fine original colour in outline, contemporary annotation on verso in brown ink, some light marginal soiling.
420 by 550mm. (16.5 by 21.75 inches).
15347
notes:
On this map are combined Saxton's surveys of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, and then-county Huntingdonshire, marking the first time each county had been cartographically documented. It comes seventh in the series of 35 maps produced under the commission of Thomas Seckford and Lord Burghley, courtiers of Queen Elizabeth I, both of whom were interested in attaining precise representations of the English and Welsh counties. The rivers, forests, hills,...
bibliography:
Brewer, 'A Dictionary of Phrase and Fable' (Cassell Ltd, 1868); 'Map of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntigdonshire and Rutland' (The British Library Online Gallery, 2009); Delano Smith, 'Map Ownership in Sixteenth-Century Cambridge: The Evidence of Probate Inventories' (Imago Mundi, 1995); Evans, Lawrence, 'Christopher Saxton Elizabethan Map-Maker' (Wakefield Historical Publications & The Holland Press, 1979); 'Christopher Saxton's Five Counties Map 1576' (Beggars Bush: A Perambulation through the Disciplines of History, Geography, Archaeology, Literature, Philology, Natural History, Botany, Biography & Beggary, 2011).
provenance: