Britania Insula Quae Duo Regna Continet Angliam Et Scotiam ...
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A rare and important example of a 'Lafreri' map of the British Isles copied from George Lily's influential and significant map of 1546. Lily, an English exile resident in Rome, produced the first non-book published map and the largest of the islands to date. His geography was based on a number of sources including Munster for the outline of England and Wales and Shirley suggests John Elden and Hector Boece for the Scottish detail, however, Lily has added many more place names than any map before. Ireland, by contrast appears in quite primitive form. The original Lily, and a number of other derivatives, show the islands with north to the right of the sheet. This version takes a normal N-S presentation. Bertelli's imprint, with the date 1561, is seen in one panel of text, the date 'MDLXII' in another, and Paolo Forlani has been attributed as engraver of the map itself. Each is regarded as a significant member of the so-called 'Lafreri' school of mapmakers, constituting a loose group of engravers and printers working in Venice and Rome in the middle of the sixteenth century who often bound together collections of maps and prints to form atlases. Lafreri had been one of the leading publishers whose catalogue of stock in 1572 and renown for binding together loose sheets, gave rise to the 'Lafreri' attribution. This example is a good, strong impression with clean, clear detail, and typically has been trimmed to the edge of the printed area and mounted with extensive protective margins.
region: General Maps of Britain |
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