Early map of Worcestershire, based on Christopher Saxton's map of 1579, but here reduced by William Hole for Camden’s 1637 edition of the “Britannia.”

William Camden first published his venerable geo-historical compendium of Great Britain and Ireland, “Britannia” in 1586 and it proved extremely popular. By 1589, encouraged by the success of Christopher Saxton’s atlas, Camden began preparations to illustrate his work with a set of county maps. Despite this lengthy lead time, the first time the work contained a set of county maps was in the 1607 sixth edition of the work. The maps injected a new lease of life into the publication and it became such a library staple that further editions were issued into the early 19th century, albeit with different maps.

The Saxton Kip or Saxton Hole maps, as they are generally known, provide an almost unique opportunity for the collector to acquire either the first available or second available map of a particular English county. These maps were only present in the sixth, seventh and eighth edition of the Britannia published 1607, 1610 and 1637 before the maps were revised and updated by other cartographers. They were usually issued in black and white but on very rare occasions, bespoke colouring was added at the time of publishing.

Saxton first prepared this map in 1577 before its eventual inclusion in his atlas of 1579. His map was then used by Pieter van den Keere c.1605 as a basis for his miniature map and a map of the county was also present in the unfinished set of maps now attributed to William Smith 1602-3. Camden, as usual, used Saxton as a source in the 1607 edition of the “Britannia.”

The example offered here is from the 1637 edition and the last feature the reduced maps by Christopher Saxton. Coloured. [WORCS289]