This beautiful county map of Durham is one of the earliest printed maps of the county. It was published by Johannes Kip in 1637 to illustrate a new edition of William Camden's Britannia. The geography is derived from the first printed map of Durham, published by Christopher Saxton in his Atlas of the Counties of England and Wales (1579), the first atlas of British counties. Kip gives credit to Saxton for the creation of the map in the lower-right corner, claiming only the honour of engraving the map for himself.



Kip's map is smaller and lacking in some of the grander decorative elements of Saxton's earlier map, but it retains much of the charm associated with early 17th century cartography with large strapwork cartouches, a compass rose, and a sailing ship. These Saxton/Kip maps remain desirable as they are more commercially available than Saxton's much rarer originals.



Coloured. [DURHAM980]