During the middle of the sixteenth century in Italy many map dealers and publishers started to bind together to order collections of various separately issued maps. This preserved much of the fine early material produced that would otherwise have been lost through the years. The two main sources of printed maps were Rome and Venice” (Burden). This superb early depiction of the British Isles is derived from the two-sheet one by George Lily (c.1510-59) printed in Rome in 1546. It is the first separately published map of the British Isles and recognised as the first modern map of the region. Its sources were numerous with many up-to-date, the big improvement was in the depiction of Scotland. Lily was a son of the famous grammarian, or linguist, William Lily and was under the patronage of Reginald Pole, with whom he returned from Italy in 1556. He was a noted historian and Catholic exile in Rome. Unfortunately that map is of remarkable rarity with just 15 examples currently recorded.

Of the original highly influential map there were more than a dozen later derivatives. In 1549 two woodcut maps were published in Antwerp both of which survive in just one known example. Similarly one by Matteo Pagano in Venice also a woodcut is known in just one example. The first copper plate version was published in Rome in 1556 which is unsigned and bears the newly formed Jesuit Society insignia ‘IHS’ lower right by which it is usually known. “Of the Tramezzino family, Francesco worked in Rome and his brother Michele in Venice” (Burden). The latter (d.1579), who is the publisher of this map, employed Sebastian de Re to engrave this version.

A simple title in a scroll appears upper right, below is a large textual cartouche bearing the imprint and date. Below this the scale of miles is present. Degrees of longitude and latitude are marked and all four cardinals are named. All Cathedral cities are noted as before. Two later states of the plate exist both surviving in one known example. Provenance: private English collection since circa 1981. Burden (1996-2007) refer no. 22; Karrow (1993) p. 270; Lynam (1934); Shirley (1991) no. 63; Taylor (1968) I p. 16; Tooley (1939) no. 271; Tooley (1999-2004).