Item details: Penbrok comitat qui inter meridionales cambriæ Ptes hodie censetur olim demetia. L Dyfet ptes B hoc est occidentalis wallia descriptio Ano Dni 1642.
£ 2250.00
SAXTON, Christopher - WEB, William
Penbrok comitat qui inter meridionales cambriæ Ptes hodie censetur olim demetia. L Dyfet ptes B hoc est occidentalis wallia descriptio Ano Dni 1642.
Imprint: London, 1578-[1645]
355 x 465 mm. Uncoloured, light age toning to the margins, a centrefold split in the lower margin and a short tear, again in the lower margin, both repaired with old paper, both short of the image, otherwise a very good example.
Evans and Lawrence speculate that the surveying of Pembroke was one of the very last counties undertaken. The majority of the Welsh counties were surveyed in 1578. It is unsigned by any engraver and it would be hard to suggest anyone. This is one county map in which Web did not anglicise the title, only the date change can be noted.William Web (fl.1629-52) was a bookseller from Oxford. In 1645 he published 'The Maps of all the Shires in England and Wales. Exactly taken and truly described by Christopher Saxton'. The imprint states 'Printed for William Web at the Globe in Cornehill, London', despite Web being a bookseller in Oxford. Quite how he came into possession of the Saxton plates is unknown. The fact that the court of Charles I was in Oxford for the duration of the Civil War (1642-46) and the atlas is dedicated to the King can be no coincidence. The war undoubtedly caused a delay as most maps bear the date of 1642 despite the title imprint being 1645. Because it did not have the same impact and no doubt because of the Civil War this edition of Saxton’s atlas is one of the rarest surviving in ONLY THREE RECORDED EXAMPLES. Evans & Lawrence (1979) pp. 45-7; Shirley Atlases in the BL T.Sax 1g; Skelton (1970) 27.
