Britannia, Volume the First: or, An Illustration of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales. by OGILBY, John (1600-1676)

London: by the author, 1675. Folio (17 1/8 x 11 2/8 inches). Title-page printed in red and black. Engraved frontispiece by Wenceslaus Hollar after Francis Barlow, double-page map of England and Wales by Joseph Moxon, and 100 double-page strip road maps with cartouches, engraved head-pieces and initials (some light browning and a few creases). Contemporary mottled calf (worn at extremities, hinges weak, endpapers renewed). Provenance: The 19th-century engraved armorial bookplate of Thomas Bartlett (born 1839) on the front paste-down. "THE FIRST MAJOR ADVANCE IN CARTOGRAPHY SINCE THE TUDOR PERIOD" (DNB) First edition, the issue with 28 pages of preliminaries, without the dedication to Archbishop Gilbert, D1r ("Of the city of London") has the catchword: "of", and the plates are unnumbered. All published. "Ogilby secured the... title of His Majesty's Cosmographer early in 1671 [and] drew upon the support of the King and other patrons in the production and publication of Britannia..., the work for which he became best known. Chiefly a road atlas, it was securely based on contemporary and collaborative research... Ogilby drew out 2519 miles of road in the form of 100 strip maps, a technique that was widely imitated throughout the following century. Measuring distances by waywiser (his "great wheel"), he made allowance for roads that ascended hills yet had to be depicted in two dimensions on paper, and his surveys helped to standardize the mile at 1760 yards throughout the kingdom. Britannia marked the first major advance in cartography in England since the Tudor period, though it did echo earlier traditions. It was republished in 1698, 1719, and 1720, and on subsequent occasions up to modern times" (DNB). John Ogilby had led a full and interesting life even before began printing the famous series of travel books that bear his name. He was an investor in the Virginia Company lottery; a renowned dancer, even owning his own dancing school and dancing before the King; and founder and managing director of the first theatre in Dublin. Ogilby only turned to publishing after an accident left him lame and he was no longer able to dance, and the rise to power of Oliver Cromwell made frivolities like dancing unfashionable. Wing O-168. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.