A most unusual and uncommon map of the region twenty miles surrounding the city of Oxford. It is the work of Benjamin Cole (1667-1729) who was an engraver, mapmaker and bookseller in Oxford. He was also a surveyor and instrument maker. He was born 17 March 1667 at St. Giles in Oxford. He started his career as a bookbinder according to Thomas Hearne before becoming an engraver. He was also a surveyor and heraldic expert. The map has laid on it concentric circles to help determine the distance from the city centre. Twenty miles takes in most of the county and parts of those of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. It extends to Reading, Newbury, Hungerford, Fairford, Stow, Banbury, Buckingham, Leighton [Buzzard], Tring and Marlow. The scale is similar to that of the large scale county maps more often found later in the eighteenth century and affords a great deal of topographical detail. The county boundaries and those of the hundreds are depicted, even those of neighbouring counties. There were three editions and states of the map, the first was by Cole alone, the second with J. Smith. This is the third state issued around 1720 with the added imprint of James Fletcher, a bookseller in the Turl, Oxford. He died 26 November 1729. Hearne goes on to describe him unkindly stating “He was a man of parts, but conceited. He might have proved eminent had not he been giddy-headed, so as to follow no one single profession.” Rodger (1972) no. 369; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011) p. 151.