Perhaps the greatest of all early seventeenth century Dutch map-makers, Willem Blaeu spent two years studying cartography under the Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe. Blaeu began to make globes, maps and navigational instruments in Amsterdam in 1596. During the following years the firm of Blaeu produced remarkable sets of maps dealing with all fields of cartographic investigation. Some of the more noteworthy achievements are, Terrestrial and Celestial Globes (1599), Sea Atlas (1608), World Atlas (1630) and General Atlas of Towns (1644).

Until 1617 Willem Blaeu signed his maps Guilielmus Janssonius or Willems Jans Zoon. After that date his maps bear the appellation, Guilielmus or Gustav Blaeu. In 1633 he achieved the most important position in Dutch cartography when he was appointed map-maker to the Dutch East India Company. After his death in 1638, the Blaeu firm continued to grow and prosper under the direction of his sons, Cornelis Blaeu (died, 1642) and Joan Blaeu (1596-1673).

"Whatever Blaeu produced, the design, execution and colouring were inspired by superb taste. Blaeu maps are the very quintessence of all that is best in the artistic expression of the period, applied to cartography."

The Blaeu family firm was founded by Willem Janzoon Blaeu in 1596, and with the collaboration of his sons, Cornelius (1616-1648) and Johannis (1596-1673), the firm was the most productive cartographic establishment in the Netherlands until it was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1672. The elder Blaeu was appointed mapmaker to the Dutch East India Company in 1633-1634, and therefore had access to fresh geographical information that was not available to any of his contemporaries. From this small beginning sprang a great series of atlases that culminated in the Atlas Maior, in which Johannes Blaeu incorporated and expanded upon much of the geographical knowledge bequeathed him by his father. The popularity of the Atlas Maior necessitated editions in Latin, Dutch, German, French and Spanish. The contents of this unprecedented atlas illustrate the highest standards of the accuracy, beauty and geographical knowledge, and its presentation bears witness to the superb craftsmanship of engraver, printer, binder, and papermaker in 17th-century Amsterdam. The foremost product of the Golden Age of Dutch Cartography, Blaeu's Atlas Maior is unequalled in the history of mapmaking.

Richard Blome has been described as a prolific publisher and compiler, as well as a map engraver and bookseller. Much of his work is alleged to have been pirated, and so judged by some to be of poor quality. Bishop Nicolson described his Britannia atlas of 1673 as: 'A most entire piece of theft out of Camden and Speed'

and Richard Gough said it was:

'a most notorious piece of plagiarism.'

In 1675, the year before his death, John Ogilby, published the first really accurate set of road maps. He had the main roads accurately measured with a 'Wheel Dimensurator' or 'waywiser' and recorded places on route, junctions with side roads, rivers and hills. He used a scale of one inch to a mile, marking a dot every furlong along the road. The statute mile, defined as 1760 yards, was made legal in 1593 but had been adopted only around London and Westminster. The length of a mile was not at all standardised elsewhere. Smith quotes from a 1617 commentary:"…a common English mile makes one and halfe Italian, but towards the north, and in some particular places of England the miles are longer, among which the Kentish mile is proverbially held to be extraordinarily long."

Ogilby's use of the statute mile did much to establish it throughout the country and the one-inch to a mile scale became widely used in county cartography and eventually by the Ordnance Survey, having been Ogilby's maps were published in an atlas named Britannia. Each map page had the road drawn, rather quaintly, as if on a strip of rolled paper,

Claudius Ptolemy was an Egyptian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer who lived and studied in Alexandria, the home of one of the greatest libraries of any period and an important trade centre. Here he was able not only to study ancient authorities but also consult contemporary travellers and merchants. From this wealth of accumulated knowledge, Ptolemy composed his Geographia, a work of considerable genius, which "dominated the whole of the Christian and Moslem world for 1,500 years" (Tooley, Maps, p.5).

Ptolemy introduced the concept of latitude and longitude to form a grid covering the world, making it possible to plot the position of principal land-marks by observations and fill in other information from other available sources.

Unfortunately Ptolemy was hampered by the paucity of observations, which resulted in some exaggerated coastlines, and by lack of information, which was often circumvented by invention. Despite these flaws, the work was of fundamental importance and earned its compiler the reputation and accolade of being "the father of geography" (Tooley, Dictionary, p. 521).

In 1477, the first printed edition of Ptolemy's Geographia with maps was issued in Bologna. Testimony to the influence of Ptolemy is given by the number of editions of Ptolemaic atlases that were subsequently published even as late as 1840.

For nearly sixty years, during the most important and exciting period in the story of modern map making, Gerard Mercator was the supreme cartographer, his name, second only to Ptolemy, synonymous with the form of map projection still in use today. Although not the inventor of this type of projection he was the first to apply it to navigational charts in such a form that compass bearings could be plotted on charts in straight lines, thereby providing seamen with a solution to an age-old problem of navigation at sea.

His influence transformed land surveying and his researches and calculations led him to break away from Ptolemy's conception of the size and outline of the Continents, drastically reducing the longitudinal length of Europe and Asia and altering the shape of the Old World as visualized in the early sixteenth century.

Mercator was born in Rupelmonde in Flanders and studied in Louvain under Gemma Frisius, Dutch writer, astronomer and mathematician. He established himself there as a cartographer and instrument and globe maker, and when he was twenty-five drew and engraved his first map (of Palestine) and went on to produce a map of Flanders (1540) supervising the surveying and completing the drafting and engraving himself.

The excellence of his work brought him the patronage of Charles V for whom he constructed a globe, but in spite of his favour with the Emperor he was caught up in the persecution of Lutheran Protestants and charged with heresy, fortunately without serious consequences. No doubt the fear of further persecution influenced his move in 1552 to Duisburg, where he continued the production of maps, globes and instruments culminating in Geographia, reproduced in his own engraving as nearly as possible in their original form, and to the preparation of his 3-volume collection of maps to which, for the first time, the word 'Atlas' was applied.

Mercator's sons and grandsons were all cartographers and made their contributions in various ways to the great atlas. Rumold, in particular, was responsible for the complete edition in 1595. After a second complete edition in 1602, the map plates were bought in 1604 by Jodocus Hondius who, with his sons, Jodocus II and Henricus, published enlarged editions which dominated the map market for the following twenty to thirty years.

Born in Hessen, Germany, Munster established himself initially as a mathematician and linguist. He studied and became Professor of Hebrew in Heidelburg, moved to Tubingen, and finally in 1529 set up business in Basle.

As a cartographer, he published "Typus Cosmographia Universalis" in 1532, 1537 and 1555, Ptolemy's "Geographia" as "Geographia Universalis" in 1540, 1541, 1542 and 1545, and "Cosmographia" in 1544. "Geographia" and "Cosmographia" were published by his step-son Henri Petri, who continued to publish his work following Munster's death.

(The edition of 1650 was almost treble the size of the original.)

Having appealed to German scholars to send him information, Munster's "Cosmographia" with its double-page folding woodcut maps, views of large towns, portraits of celebrities, costumes, plants and animals, was widely responsible for the spread of geographical knowledge through Europe. Munster was the first to publish separate maps of the four continents known at that time: Europe, Asia, Africa and America. He also was the first to publish a separate map of England.

Bacon's career took off when he started publishing maps of the American Civil War in London. With great attention to detail these maps are extremely popular with local residents, historians and genealogists.

He was responsible for a prolific output of cartographic work; acting as the British publisher for the American J.H. Colton and taking over the renowned Wyld firm in 1893; these are just two examples.

By 1870 Bacon's firm had established itself as one of London's leading cartographical establishments and as well as dealing in maps, atlases and wall charts was also curiously dealing 'Bacon's Sewing Machines'.

Bacon's stature in the cartographic community continued to grow and in May 1866 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He insured a wide dispersion of his maps by including them in such diverse publications as Car Illustrated and Intelligence Quarterly. His maps were colourfully eye-catching, when costs allowed, and often included illustrations; the small steam-trains on this map of the Thames provide an interesting feature.

Bacon was also responsible for a number of cycling maps of the country, in keeping with the Victorian themes of health and fitness, as well as tourist maps of the capital in competition with other mapmakers of the day. He also produced satirical maps and a serio-comic map of Europe. Bacon knew his market well and used this knowledge to his advantage.

John Cary was an 18th century English cartographer. He served his apprenticeship as an engraver in London, before setting up his own business in the Strand in 1783. He soon gained a reputation for his maps and globes, his atlas, 'The New and Correct English Atlas' published in 1787, becoming a standard reference work in England.

In 1794 Cary was commissioned by the Postmaster General to survey England's roads. This resulted in Cary's New Itinerary (1798), a map of all the major roads in England and Wales. He also produced Ordnance Survey maps prior to 1805.

In his later life he collaborated with the geologist William Smith. Other major works include a world atlas created between 1799 and 1807.

Fullerton and Co. Edinburgh published many maps including a set of English counties, from 1833 to 1836, each with a vignette of some well-known building or town in the county. Subsequently, the company produced a huge variety of maps, most notable of which were collected in one of the nineteenth century's most beautiful and informative publications.

Maps of parts of the world were issued in this atlas, c.1860-67. It took the form of a fine mixture of plain accurate maps and beautifully decorative ones, inset in a wide pictorial border showing scenes, natives, and fauna and lots more.

The original John seller maps are really quite scarce, although the GROSE/SELLER maps are comparatively more common. The Grose/Seller maps had interesting historical notes and text added below the map & this text was continued verso.

Johann Baptist Homann, a former Dominican monk, became a celebrated cartographer of 18th century Nuremberg, Germany, producing maps and celestial charts (generally in atlases), and globes of high quality both in their geographic accuracy and aesthetic appeal. According to map expert R.V. Tooley: "The most important and prolific map-makers in Germany in the 18th century were the Homann family (1702-1813). The founder and principal member was Johann Baptist Homann. He set up his headquarters in Nuremberg and quickly dominated the German market. Nor did he confine his efforts to his homeland, but produced general atlases covering the whole world."

After settling in Nuremberg in 1688, Johann Baptist Homann was employed as a map engraver before founding his own firm in 1702. 1848.

The son of a bookseller and publisher who had worked with Jodocus Hondius Sr. He married Jodocus' daughter Elisabeth in 1612. From about 1633 onwards, his imprint appears on the title pages of the Mercator-Hondius Atlas, in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Henry, as they re-issued their Atlas in competition with the Blaeus. At this time, many of the maps were re-drawn or replaced.

Following Henry's death, Jansson continued the business, expanding the Atlas into the Atlas Novus "this was a magnificent work and would, at any other period, have been the highlight of a nation's map production but for the work of the Blaeu family". (Potter, Antique Maps, p.39).

Jansson also issued a revised reprint of Braun and Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis Terrarum, retaining many of the existing plates, but also adding a number of new ones. Other atlases that he published include Andreas Cellarius' celestial atlas and George Hornius' classical atlas. In the latter there are two maps of particular note - a seven sheet map of Palestine and the Peutinger table of Roman Roads.

Keith Johnston and his father, Alexander Keith Johnston (1804 -71). Following closely in his father's footsteps, Keith became an accomplished cartographer, and like his father, who was a friend of David Livingstone, was deeply involved in research into the geography of East and Central Africa, and the great controversies over the source of the Nile. Both father and son studied under the distinguished German geographers and introduced new concepts of cartography and geography into Britain, for which Alexander, as the pre-eminent cartographer in the renowned Edinburgh firm of W and A K Johnston, was crowned with honours towards the end of his life.

Johnston senior was a leader in the development of thematic atlases, his outstanding achievement

being the Atlas of Natural Phenomena, a work of immense complexity which took 10 years of patient toil and incorporated a huge amount of scientific information on everything from animal life to hydrography. Both were highly

innovative and well in advance of their time.

Keith himself, after a short period working for Stanford's, subsequently as head of the London Office of W & A K Johnston, then became the assistant map curator for the RGS with which he and his father were intimately Associated.

On his return, Keith was appointed leader of the RGS 1878-80 Expedition to East Africa, their task being to explore a feasible trade route to the Central African Lakes Nyassa (now Malawi).

Kitchin worked as a publisher and engraver from premises at The Star in Holborn, London. He was an engraver of the highest ability and produced a broad range of books on a variety of subjects as including topographical works. By himself, Kitchen produced a large number of maps of every kind for periodicals such as the London Magazine and for books on history and antiquities. He is probably best known though, for his partnership with Emanuel Bowen with whom he published, in 1755, 'The Large English Atlas' which contained the finest county maps of the 18th.Century.

Dutchman, Herman Moll was a bookseller, geographer and engraver. Around 1678 he moved to London where for a while he continued as an engraver. Later, he started his own business as a map publisher and by the turn of the century had become the most prominent map publisher in the country. He published atlases and loose maps of all parts of the world many of which were highly decorative. In 1724 he published his 'New Description of England and Wales', an atlas of the English and Welsh counties.

His work had a high reputation and was much copied by other publishers. He found work as an engraver, working for Moses Pitt, among others. By 1688, he had his own shop from which he sold maps, though the distinctively and characteristically Moll maps came later. Moll had a gift for making interesting friends, and these included Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift (he provided maps for Robinson Carusoe and for Gulliver's Travels), explorer/buccaneers William Dampier and Woodes Rogers, and the scientist Robert Hooke.

Robert Morden was a publisher, bookseller, map seller, cartographer, globe and instrument maker. He worked in London at the Atlas in New Cheapside and at the Atlas in Cornhill from 1675 to 1703.

He produced a huge variety of cartographical work including geographical playing cards, large-scale maps in a number of sheets, the most important being a 12-sheet plan of London by William Morgan.

He is probably best known for his series of county maps in Camden's Britannia. This work had last been published in 1637 and illustrated with county maps by William Hole and William Kip. The new edition was published in 1695 by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of Lincoln, printed by F. Collins for Abel Swalle at the West end of St. Paul's Church yard and for Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Paternoster Row.

Born in London, Thomas Moule became a writer on Heraldry and antiquities. As a mapmaker, his best known works include the series of county maps first published in 1830-32. Subsequently, they were published in collected form in a two-volume work: 'The English Counties Delineated: or a Topographical Description of England: Illustrated by a Complete Series of County Maps by Thomas Moule: London': Published by George Virtue 1836.

Further editions were published by Virtue until about 1839. Some of these editions included original hand colouring. In 1841 the maps appeared in 'Barclays Complete and Universal English Dictionary' with additions to the original plates showing the railways which had been constructed. They are the last series of decorative county maps to be published.

These superbly decorative steel plate engravings with their fine borders, buildings and landmarks are highly sought after and the better condition examples make a fitting addition to any collection.

Ogilby's survey was perhaps the most accurate to date. He used the new distance of 1760 yards to a mile instead of the old standard of 2428 yards and calculated distances methodically by foot. Several smaller versions where published, although Ogilby's own was the most successful, going through a number of editions and reprints well past the middle of the century. Each page is engraved, and provided with printed annotations and coats of arms.

An English cartographer, born near Leeds in Yorkshire, Saxton was educated at Cambridge and later moved to London. Thomas Seckford was a wealthy and influential lawyer and official of the Queen's court, employed by the Lord Treasurer, Lord Burghley. Under Seckford's patronage, Saxton began a survey of England and Wales in 1574.

The first set of county maps ever printed, and one of the first national atlases was "An Atlas of England and Wales" which Saxton published in 1579, showing Queen Elizabeth as the patron of geography and astronomy. The technique of engraving on copper was somewhat more advance in the Netherlands, so their craftsmen were brought to England to work on fourteen of the thirty-six original plates. Augustine Ryther, although English, produced maps that were a fine example of the Dutch influence in their style of lettering and decoration.

Until individual county surveys were done in the second half of the eighteenth century, most county maps of England and Wales were based on this work.

Saxton's atlas was reissued in 1645 by William Web as "All the Shires of England and Wales", and fifty years later by Philip Lea as "The Shires of England and Wales" and in French as "Atlas Anglois". George Willdey reissued this atlas in 1730 from Philip Lea's amended plates, Thomas Jefferys reissued George Willdey's atlas in 1749, and Dicey & Co. reissued it yet again in 1770.

The finest map of the sixteenth century was "Britannia: Insurarem in Oceano Maxima" published by Saxton in 1583. Only two copies have been found of this twenty-sheet wall map of England and Wales. The second copy had a broad engraved border of eighty-five coats-of-arms of the nobility and gentry. Once again owing to popular demand, Saxton's map was reissued a number of times. A reduced version on six sheets, known as the Quartermaster's Map, was engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar (who had been taught engraving by Matthaus Merian) and published by Thomas Jenner in 1645; and reissued over a period of one hundred and fifty years.

It set out to achieve this by acting as an intermediary between authors and publishers by launching several series of publications. It was run by a committee of eminent persons, and had a close association with the newly formed London University, as well as the numerous provincial Mechanics' Institutes. The Society commissioned work and dealt with the printers, finally distributed the publications.

Famous for small scale, detailed maps of some of the less hospitable areas of the world, as well as asthetically pleasing town plans, the work of the S.D.U.K remains highly sought after and very collectable.