Cheshire Maps

43x35 cm

THE COUNTY PALATINE OF CHESTER By Rob.^t Morden
Sold by Abel Swale Awnsham & Iohn Churchil

Copper engraving produced by Robert Morden for publication in Edmund Gibson's translation of William Camden's Britannia first published by Abel Swalle and Awnsham & John Churchill in 1695.
This is the first series of maps to mark longitude in minutes of time from London (top border) as well as in degrees (bottom border). Minutes of time was useful during a period when time was not yet standardised across the country. For most counties longitude is based on the meridian of St. Paul's, London. For many maps in the series they were also the first folio county maps to show roads; Morden used the survey and strip road maps of John Ogilby published in his road book, also titled Britannia, in 1675. Although Morden used Ogilby's road book for the depiction of roads on his maps, he did not use Ogilby's standardisation of measure for the mile at 1760 yards preferring the somewhat arbitrary method of including three scales according to varying local measurement, of 'Great', 'Middle' and 'Small' miles.
Gibson's Britannia was republished in 1722, 1730, 1753 and, finally in 1772.  The maps were included in each edition and were substantially updated for the 1722 edition, mostly with changes to place name spellings. The plates were reworked for the 1753 edition due to wear caused by the printing process.

Fine example from the first edition of 1695 in neat later hand colour.