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Description: | This map of the North Riding, Yorkshire is from the first edition of the Saxton atlas of England and Wales. Yorkshire is the only county to be engraved over two separate plates, due to its size. This atlas was first published as a whole in 1579. It consists of 35 coloured maps depicting the counties of England and Wales. The atlas is of great significance to British cartography as it set a standard of cartographic representation in Britain and the maps remained the basis for English county mapping, with few exceptions, until after 1750.
During the reign of Elizabeth I map use became more common, with many government matters referring to increasingly accurate maps with consistent scales and symbols, made possible by advances in surveying techniques. Illustrating the increasing use of maps in government matters, Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I’s Secretary of State, who had been determined to have England and Wales mapped in detail from the 1550s, selected the cartographer Christopher Saxton to produce a detailed and consistent survey of the country. The financier of the project was Thomas Seckford Master of Requests at the Court of Elizabeth I, whose arms appear, along with the royal crest, on each map.
Here Saxton’s name appears in the decorative scale bar, as does the name of the engraver of this map, Augustine Ryther, the most accomplished of seven English and Flemish engravers employed to produced the copper plates for the atlas. The strap work cartouche is mounted by the Elizabethan coat of arms and the Seckford arms of appear in the bottom left corner. The adjacent counties are named but lack any internal detail, recording only the path of rivers that cross county boundaries. | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Source: | Collect Britain | Creator: | Saxton, Christopher | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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