John Ogilby’s seminal work was the ‘Britannia’. It was the first national road-atlas of any country in Western Europe and a landmark in the mapping of England and Wales. Ogilby (1600–1676) had a remarkable life and this is arguably his finest achievement published just before his death the following year. The 100 double-page engraved road maps were composed of seventy-three major roads and cross-roads, presented in a continuous strip-form. It covered some 2519 miles of road. For the first time in England, the atlas was prepared on a uniform scale, at one inch to a mile, based on the statute mile of 1,760 yards to the mile. Ogilby claimed that 26,600 miles of roads were surveyed in the course of preparing the atlas, but only about 7,500 were actually depicted in print. ‘In its comprehensiveness, its incorporation of new devices of computation and delineation, and its opulence of paper, design and decoration, it immediately set a new standard for map-making in England … this volume was an attempt at a scientific study not only of the roads but also the terrain and habitations on either side of the roads’ (Eerde).

This example is according to Hodson’s intensive study issue number 8 of 12. Here the general map is in its second state and the road strips in their third numbered issue. The introductory descriptive text of London is in its revised 8 page form. Everything is as expected according to Hodson with the exception of a slightly earlier form of the typesetting of the letterpress title page. This is undoubtedly due to the manner by which examples would have been stored and was clearly a near remnant at the time it was selected from the shelf for binding. Provenance: public auction. Bennett (1996) pp. 12-13; Chubb C; Eerde, K. S. ‘John Ogilby and the Taste of his Times’, 1976, p.137; Hodson ‘The Early Printed Road Books and Itineraries of England and Wales’ B8; Shirley BL T.OGIL-4a; Wing O168.