Ogilby, John "The Road from London to Hith"

John Ogilby (1600-1676).  “The Road from London to Hith.”  From Britannia-A Geographical and Historical Description of the Principal Roads thereof.... 

London, 1675-76.  12 1/2 x 16 ¼ (neat lines).  Engraving.  Hand color.  Light mat burn in margins.  Map somewhat time-toned with some wear along center fold. A few soft vertical  creases.  Old tape on verso.  Old fill in lower right hand margin using old laid paper.  Else, fine condition.  A/A 

Ogilby, one of the more colorful figures associated with cartography, started life as a dancing master and finished as the King’s Cosmographer and Geographic Printer.  In the course of an eventful life he built a theater in Dublin, became the Deputy Master of Revels in Ireland, translated various Greek and Latin works and built  a book publishing business.  In the process he twice lost all he possessed, first in a shipwreck during the Civil Wars and then in the Great Fire of London.  Even this disaster he turned to advantage by being appointed to a Commission of Survey following the fire.  He turned to printing again and in a few short years organized a survey of all the main post roads in the country and published the first practical road atlas, the Britannia, which was to have far reaching effects on future map making for not only England, but the entire world.  The maps, engraved in strip form, give details of the roads themselves and descriptive notes of the country on either side, each strip having a compass rose to indicate changes in direction.  Topography is shown using the molehill style, and uphill or downhill is illustrated by inverting the picture of a grade on the page.  Ogilby was also the first mapmaker to use the standard mile of 1,760 yards on all his maps.  This particular map is one of the more desirable from the Ogilby series, showing a significant part of London in the bottom left corner.