Copy of 1st printed English atlas sold for $1.2m
A rare copy of the first printed atlas of England and Wales sold for £669,600 [about $1.2 million] at auction yesterday.
The atlas was completed in 1579 -- but printing was delayed until 1590 to prevent the Spanish getting information about the English coastline. It is a landmark in Elizabethan cartography, mapping England and Wales in their entirety for the first time. It was created by a surveyor called Christopher Saxton, who was born in Dunningley, West Yorkshire.
The atlas is bound with a rare set of five maps by the Italian cartographer, Giovanni Battista Boazio. They illustrate Sir Francis Drake's expedition to the West Indies and America between 1585 and 1586, and include a view of St Augustine, in Florida, which is the earliest printed plan of any city in the US.
The auction at Sotheby's was part of the sale of the library of the Earls of Macclesfield. The identity of the purchaser of the Elizabethan atlas was not revealed by the auction house yesterday.
Read entire article at Independent
The atlas was completed in 1579 -- but printing was delayed until 1590 to prevent the Spanish getting information about the English coastline. It is a landmark in Elizabethan cartography, mapping England and Wales in their entirety for the first time. It was created by a surveyor called Christopher Saxton, who was born in Dunningley, West Yorkshire.
The atlas is bound with a rare set of five maps by the Italian cartographer, Giovanni Battista Boazio. They illustrate Sir Francis Drake's expedition to the West Indies and America between 1585 and 1586, and include a view of St Augustine, in Florida, which is the earliest printed plan of any city in the US.
The auction at Sotheby's was part of the sale of the library of the Earls of Macclesfield. The identity of the purchaser of the Elizabethan atlas was not revealed by the auction house yesterday.