John Norden (c.1547-1625) is noted as being the first person to undertake a complete series of county histories. Unfortunately he suffered financial issues during his life which limited the reach of the project. This is largely due to ‘the Puritan tracts he wrote to raise money and his flattering dedication to Essex shortly before the uprising of 1599 set him so far out of political favour that he never received the patronage necessary to finance expensive surveys’ (Globe). The first part was successfully published in 1593 which covered Middlesex. Hertfordshire followed in 1598. Both were published at Norden’s expense. No others were published during his lifetime but he left a few further county histories in manuscript form. The original manuscript of Middlesex survives in one example without map.

After dedications to Queen Elizabeth and Sir William Cecil the work begins with a lengthy introduction by John Norden. This is followed by the first part describing Middlesex which includes three engraved maps of the county, London is engraved signed by Pieter van den Keere as engraver and it is presumed he was responsible for those of Westminster and Middlesex also. Norden’s map was the first of the county to display roads and the internal divisions. The system of a graticule was also a first. The maps display the location of all of Elizabeth’s Palaces and that of Middlesex contains a copper mill. Norden recorded remarkable detail; we have come to expect the usual content on maps of towns, villages and churches etc. But Norden keys ‘Houses of Nobilitie’, ‘Houses of Knights, Gent &’, ‘Hospitales’, ‘Places where battells have bene’ and ‘Decayde places’.

The plan of London bears the livery of the twelve principal City Companies along the side borders and an extensive key below. The third and final map is a superb one of the City of Westminster and the magnificent Palaces that lined the Thames between the two cities. These include the familiar ‘Savoye’ and ‘Durham house’ the home of Sir Walter Raleigh. The river bears several craft with figures and even Swans. The various ‘stayres’ providing landing points are also identified.

Provenance: bookplate of Lord Newlands. Barber, Peter. (2007). ‘Mapmaking in England, ca.1470-1650’ in ‘The History of Cartography’ volume 3 part 2 pp. 1632-4; Darlington and Howgego (1964) 5.1 & p. 20; ESTC S113229; Hind I pp. 195-202 pls. 114-16; Kitchen, Frank. (1997). ‘John Norden (c.1547-1625): Estate Surveyor, Topographer, County Mapmaker and Devotional Writer’, in ‘Imago Mundi’ no. 49 pp. 43-61; Lawrence, Heather. (1989). ‘John Norden and his colleagues: surveyors of Crown Lands’, in ‘The Map Collector’ no. 49 pp. 25-8; Schilder (2007) ‘Monumenta Cartographica Neerlandica’, vol. 8. pp. 329-32; Upcott (1968) II p. 582; Wheatley, Henry B. (1903). ‘Notes upon Norden and His Map of London, 1593’, ‘London Topographical Record 2, pp. 42-65; Worms History of Cart 3.2.1633; Worms, Laurence. (2007). ‘The London Map Trade to 1640’ in ‘The History of Cartography’ volume 3 part 2 pp. 1705-6; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).