[QUARTERMASTER'S MAP, The.]

The kingdome of England & principality of Wales, exactly described whith every sheere, & the small townes in every one of them, in six mappes, portable for every mans pocket . . . Usefull for all comanders for quarteringe of souldiers, & all sorts of persons, that would be informed, where the armies be; never so commodiously drawne before this. 1644. Described by one that travailed throughout the whole kingdome, for its purpose.

[London], sold by Thomas Jenner, 1644. Tall 8vo (220 x 85 mm), with an engraved title and six double-page folding engraved maps (hand-coloured in outline); contemporary calf, rebacked and resewn; metal clasps. Usually known as the Quartermaster’s Map, this map – pocket-sized when folded –was based on Christopher Saxton’s large wall map of 1583. Etched for the most part by Wenceslaus Hollar, it was first published in 1644, during the English Civil War, by Thomas Jenner, a printseller with strong puritan and parliamentarian sympathies: Jenner’s production, especially after 1640, ‘had a strong political bias; and his earliest cartographic works were plainly designed for the use of the armies. The need for maps in military operations doubtless accounts . . . for his commissioning of Hollar to etch a copy of Saxton’s wall-map of England and Wales, the so-called Quartermaster’s Map (1644)’ (Skelton, County atlases of the British Isles p. 235).The Quatermaster’s Map proved useful and popular for many years after its first appearance during the Civil War. ‘The wartime value of such a volume is clear, but the artist certainly had a wider purpose than military in reducing his maps to a size that would be “Portable for every man’s pocket”. Despite its hazards, travel in these uneasy mid-decades of the seventeenth century was considerable, as volumes of memoirs and letters such as those of Lady Fanshawe, John Evelyn, and Dorothy Osborne Temple show. Maps of the usual size were consigned to a library, but these could accompany the traveler and would, in an age before specific guidebooks or well-marked roads, be especially welcome’ (Van Eerde p. 31). Pepys refers to the Quatermaster’s Map in his Diary for 9 June 1667: “My Lord Barkeley wanting some maps, and Sir W. Coventry recommending the six maps of England that are bound up for the pocket, I did offer to present my Lord with them, which he accepted’ (quoted by Penington, p. xliv). It was re-issued on several occasions (with various alterations, such as the addition of roads), including by Jenner in 1671, by John Garrett in 1688 and by John Rocque in 1752.BM Maps V 437; Pennington 652–657; Shirley, Early printed maps of the British Isles 537; Van Eerde, Wenceslaus Hollar pp. 30–1; Wing H2447. The compactness of the format meant that much of the sea-surface was omitted, including the Isle of Man, part of the Lincolnshire coast at Mablethorpe, and Land’s End. Extensions showing these features were printed and are occasionally found attached to the relevant sheet, as, for example, Land’s End in the present copy.

• GBP 7,500.00 > otras divisas
• nº de pedido: T2065

• librero: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)