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Add MS 62540
- Record Id:
- 032-001962954
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001962954
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000055.0x000160
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058107859.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 62540
- Title:
-
Atlas of Sicily, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland
- Scope & Content:
-
Atlas book containing two maps by Laurence Nowell (1530-c. 1570), antiquary, covering Sicily, England, Wales, Ireland and part of Scotland. With itineraries partly in the hand of William Cecil, first Baron Burghley (1520-1598), royal minister.
f. 2v: Map of Sicily by Laurence Nowell, possibly copied from the Lafreri Atlas held at Hatfield House. Pen and wash, pasted into the volume.
f. 3r: Index of locations.
ff. 3v-4r: Map of Ireland and England (scale approx. 1:3720472). Titled ‘A general description of England and Ireland with the costes adjoyning’. By Laurence Nowell, c. 1564. Ink and coloured wash on parchment.
The map extends from Dunkeld and Arbroath (Scotland) to the Franco-Flemish coast between the Île Saint-Matthieu (Britanny) and Bruges. Cardinal points are given in Latin, with North at the top. Marginal graduation (numbered 70–230 Lat. N; 500–600 Long. E in single degrees; 10 Lat.: 30 mm 10 Long: 15 mm). Apparently drawn on the trapezoid (‘Donis’) projection.
Annotated in the hand of William Cecil, first Baron Burghley, to show positions of Framlingham, Suffolk, and Lopham, Norfolk.
Decoration: crowned Tudor arms (top left); decorative title cartouche (top right); a reclining figure (presumably Nowell) with a barking dog, (bottom left); initials ‘L.N.’ on the base of the pedestal; Hesiod's 'Works and Days', 96 inscribed on the pedestal; a seated figure (Cecil) on an hour glass (bottom right).
ff. 4v-5r: Tables of distances.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001962954", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 62540: Atlas of Sicily, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001962954
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001962954
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058107859.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1564
- End Date:
- 1564
- Date Range:
- c. 1564
- Era:
- CE
- Place of Origin:
- England
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper, parchment.
Dimensions: Atlas is 212 x 309 mm, on sheet 233 x 339 mm.
Foliation: ff. 6.
Binding: Pre-1600. Original binding of limp vellum, with remains of silk ties, in a half-morocco case.
Script: Humanist.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
William Cecil, first Baron Burghley (1520-1598), royal minister: former owner. His notes on the central fold of the map are traditionally cited as evidence that the volume was carried by Burghley for regular use.
Michael Hicks (1543-1612), administrator: former owner. As Burghley’s secretary, the volume was retained in his family until 1682.
Richard Chiswell, the elder (1640-1711), bookseller: former owner, purchased the volume from the Hicks family.
John Strype (1643-1737), historian and biographer: former owner, purchased from Chiswell.
James West (1703-1772), politician and antiquary: former owner, listed in the catalogue of his collection from his house in Covent Garden (see Stowe MS 1056).
William Petty [formerly Fitzmaurice], second Earl of Shelburne and first Marquess of Lansdowne (1737–1805), prime minister: former owner. Retained in his family until 1807, when the bulk of his manuscripts were sent to the British Museum.
Purchased by the British Library at Christie’s, 8 December 1982 (lot 128).
- Information About Copies:
-
Lansdowne MS 6, item 54: Proposal by Laurence Nowell to Sir William Cecil for more accurate mapping of the country, of which this map is an example.
- Publications:
-
The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, New Series 1981-1985, Part 1: Descriptions (London: British Library, 1994), pp. 111-12.
Barber, Peter, ‘A Tudor Mystery: Laurence Nowell’s Map of England and Ireland’, The Map Collector, 22 (1983), 16-21.
Barber, Peter, ‘The Minister Put His Mind on the Map’, The British Museum Society Bulletin, 43 (1983), 18-19.
Barber, Peter, ‘England II: Monarchs, Ministers, and Maps, 1550-1625’, in Monarchs, Ministers, and Maps: The Emergence of Cartography as a Tool of Government in Early Modern Europe, ed. David Buisseret (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 57-98.
Jones, Norman, Governing by Virtue: Lord Burghley and the Management of Elizabethan England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 67-68.
Skelton, R. A., and J. Summerson, A Description of the Maps and Architectural Drawings made by William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, now at Hatfield House, Roxburghe Club (1971), pp. 19, 36-38, 64.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)