Angliae Regni Florentissimi Nova Descriptio, auctore Humfredo Lhuyd

Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus, 1595. Copper engraving, 37 x 50 cms, black and white, small hole at centrefold, Latin text to verso. Shirley notes that the map is a general improvement on the previous Mercator-Ortelius outline, and draws attention to a detail which vividly suggests the personal involvement of the map-maker, Welsh antiquary Humphrey Lluyd: “the Caernarvon peninsula near Lluyd’s home town of Denbigh is badly distorted but it has been suggested very reasonably that this may have been due to Lluyd’s attempt to sketch this in by eye from the nearby mountains”. Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is generally considered the first modern atlas of the world, originally published in 1570. Ortelius gathered and selected the best available cartographic knowledge and presented it in a single volume, duly credited and finely engraved in a consistent style, with explanatory text. The Theatrum was very decorative and hugely popular amongst the wealthy and educated, running into over forty editions in Latin and the major European languages. Shirley, British Isles, 185. Van den Broecke 19.3 Map