The Road from London to Aberistwith. (Plate I.) London to Islip and Oxford.

First edition, large paper copy. Chubb: "This is the first survey of the roads
of England and Wales. It is composed of 102 copper plates and 200 pages of text. The
maps are engraved on strips representing bands of ribbon of about 2 1/2 inches in width.
On most plates six strip maps are given; but in some cases there are seven. They show
the main roads only with the side roads indicated. The distances are shown in miles
along the roads, and the villages and mansions named, and in some cases the names of
residents are given." Ogilby was one of the finest mapmakers of his day in England
and he intended to publish two additional volumes in this series: a volume of city views
and a volume of topographical descriptions of all of England and Wales. Ogilby's
method of strip maps to show roads was copied well into the twentieth century. While it
is familiar to us today, in 1675 it was a radical departure from conventional
cartographic methods.

Title

Britannia, Volume the First. Or an Illustration of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales: By a Geographical and Historical Description of the Principal Roads thereof. Actually Admeasured and Delineated in a Century of Whole-Sheet Copper-Sculps. Accomodated With the Ichnography of the several Cities and Capital Towns; and Compleated By an Accurate Account of the more Remarkable Passages of Antiquity, Together with a Novel Discourse of the Present State. By John Ogilby Esq.; His Majesty's Cosmographer, and Master of His Majesty's Revels in the Kingdom of Ireland. London, Printed by the Author at his House in White-Fryers. M.DC.LXXV (1675)