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Description:
THE FIRST COPPER-PLATE MAP OF THE BRITISH ISLES BASED ON CONTEMPORARY KNOWLEDGE Copperplate engraving: 193/8" x 137/8" trimmed with original extended margins References: R.V. Tooley, "Maps in Italian Atlases of the Sixteenth Century," Imago Mundi 3 (1939), n. 269; Lloyd Arnold Brown, The World Encompassed, exh. cat. (Baltimore, 1952), n. 163; Rodney W. Shirley, Early Printed Maps of the British Isles: A Bibliography 1477-1650 (Somerset, England, 1980), n. 60. George Lily, a religious exile from England living in Rome, was the author of the earliest separately published map to show the British Isles as a whole. Lily's map, first issued in Rome in 1546, derived the shape of England and Wales from Sebastian Münster's map of 1540 and also perhaps from a manuscript produced around 1535 known as the Cotton map, which is now in the British Library. Lily, however, included many more place names and topographical features than either model. Rodney Shirley, the great authority on maps of Great Britain, wrote that "the Lily map is one of the finest engravings of the first part of the 16th century and rightly deserves the accord which has been given to it. There are several earlier versions of the British Isles in Ptolemaic atlases but none of these approaches the Lily map in originality, clarity, or elegance." Lily was an English Catholic who, as part of the entourage of Reginald Cardinal Pole, was banished from England in 1543 during the aftermath of Henry VIII's split with the papacy. Lily established himself in Rome, working as an editor of maps in collaboration with the prominent publisher Michele Tramezzini. Lily signed his work with a monogrammed 'GLA' (Georgius Lilius Anglus). "Britanniae Insulae," although unsigned, may also have been engraved by Beatrizet, and was probably published by Tramezzini. Lily's original issue of 1546 is of great rarity. The present map is a fine example of the second issue, published a decade later and also quite scarce. It is true to the original, although the British Isles are oriented with north at top (in contrast to the 1546 orientation with north at left), in the more familiar configuration that has become standard in modern times. The depiction of Great Britain is geographically advanced, while Ireland is represented with noticeably less definition. The identity of the publisher and engraver is unknown, and the appearance of the creator's mark, I.H.S., at the lower right corner, is the only clue as to its author. This example of the rare second issue of Lily's map is in very good condition and represents an exceptionally important work in the early history of British Isles cartography.
| Status: No Longer Available |
Reference#: s24900i1937-OLD-OLD-OLD |
| Condition:
n/a |
Year:
unknown
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| Country:
UNITED KINGDOM |
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| Title:
Britannia insula quae duo regna continent Angliam et Scotiam cum Hibernia adiacente ( |
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