Although printing was introduced into England by William Caxton in the 1470s, the emergence from that point of a specialized trade in printed maps and atlases was a slow and halting process. Map publishing required skills in making and printing blocks or plates quite separate from those involved in the printing of books by letterpress:…
A lecture given at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in the Cambridge Seminars in the History of Cartography series – 23rd February 2010. John Seller, Samuel Pepys and the London map-trade. Already something of a well-worn path. The principal authority on Seller, the late Professor Coolie Verner, noted – over thirty years ago now – “Much has…
First published in the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) Newsletter, No. 345, May 2008. I was given this little slip of ephemera by our distinguished editor, Brian Lake, a number of years ago. Brian was naturally amused at this nineteenth-century ducker, diver, and dealer in second-hand goods with a slightly cavalier attitude to old books sharing…
A talk given at the London Map Fair at the Royal Geographical Society, June 2011, on the occasion of the pre-launch of “British Map Engravers”. Click on any of the images to enlarge. Nearly 800 pages in all, some 1,600 entries, over 600 illustrations – and more than just a dictionary. A rather large and ambitious…
A talk given to members of the International Map Collectors’ Society (IMCoS) – 3rd June 2000. A transcript was published in the IMCoS Journal: Issue 82 (Autumn 2000). We are all used to looking at maps: that is what brings us together. One small part of the complex web of information a map may offer…
Paper given to the Bibliographical Society 18th January 2000. My title will perhaps represent a puzzle. The search for John Senex. To some of you it will be a matter of – John Senex – of course, the early eighteenth century mapmaker, the engraver, the globemaker – we thought we had already found him. But to…
Below is a full transcript of the Jefferys’ “piracy” dispute mentioned in the previous post. I am most grateful to Ashley Baynton-Williams for his meticulous research and for permission to reproduce his transcript here. Anonymous Journal Of The Proceedings Of The Congress Held At Philadelphia, May 10, 1775 Speedily will be Published, (Sold…
Originally published (with more and variant illustrations) in Mapforum 3 (Autumn, 2004): pp. 20-29. Thomas Jefferys is already rather better documented than most English mapmakers of the eighteenth century – or indeed of any other period. Brian Harley’s exemplary 1966 essay,[1] amplified and updated by the more recent work of Mary Pedley and Donald Hodson,[2] gives…
