Britannia Depicta or Ogilby Improv'd...
London,
Printed for and sold by Tho: Bowles, Em: Bowen,
1720
Quarto (210 by 140mm), engraved titile, 4p. table and 137 unsigned leaves bearing engraved plates number 1 to 273, printed on recto and verso, original English panelled calf, spine rebacked to style.
2495
notes:
First edition, first issue of this of this highly popular reduced version of John Ogilby's 1675 road atlas; Bowen's address given as "next ye King of Spain", plate 128 misnumbered 121, and plates 74 and 75 transposed. Bowles decided to go one better than Thomas Gardner and John Senex, who were planning reduced size re-issues of Ogilby, by augmenting the work with 54 county maps and "a multitude of historical, topographical and statistical information" (Hodson) by the antiqu...
bibliography:
Chubb CXLVII; Hodson 149.
provenance: