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OGILBY, John and Eman BOWEN : Britannia Depicta or Ogilby Improv'd; Being a Correct Coppy of Mr. Ogilby's Actual Survey of All Ye Direct & Principal Crossroads in England and Wales; The Fourth Edition

1736

Tho. Bowles. 1736. First issue of fourth edition. Bound in full 18th century speckled brown calf gilt. Raised bands to spine, contrasting leather label. Index [8], Engraved maps and routes - 273 pages. Early ink ownership signature. One 2 inch close tear to edge of pages 17/18 with no loss. Boards slightly marked and worn otherwise a remarkably clean and sound copy of this beautifully produced and historically important book of maps. Please contact us for more photos and details. Ogilby's atlas is rightly celebrated in the history of cartography. The pre-turnpike road network is not depicted with any accuracy until Ogilby published his atlas of "principal roads" of England and Wales in 1675 (Ogilby, 1970). Britannia consisted of strip maps at 1:63360 scale of 85 routes on 100 copper plates which surveyed and mapped over 7500 miles of road. Earlier itineraries and road books had demarcated routes nationally but only as sequences of stages usually eight to twenty miles apart. In essence Britannia marked the transition from route, a direction of travel between known points, to road , a physical feature in the landscape. Despite the significance of Ogilby, his atlas has remained largely the preserve of the cartographic historian

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