Britannia (atlas)

Rather than write a history, Camden wanted to describe in detail the Great Britain of his time, and to show how the traces of the past could be discerned in the existing landscape.

In 1675, John Ogilby (1600–1676) issued his Britannia (also Itinerarium Angliæ), a road atlas depicting in strip form of most of the major routes in England and Wales.

The tinted edition was called 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-Sculpt.and the monochrome edition was Itinerarium Angliæ or, a Book of ROADS Wherein are Contain'd The Principal Road-Ways of His Majesty's Kingdom of ENGLAND and Dominion of Wales: Actually Admeasured and Delineated in a Century of Whole Sheet Copper-Sculps The book was sold at £5 (the equivalent of about £757 in 2019), was in a large format,[a] and weighed about 8 kg (18 lb).

[13] A version of the book, "The traveller's guide or, a most exact description of the roads of England", in a smaller format and without any maps, was published in 1699 by Abel Swall.

Ogilby's Britannia , frontispiece. A surveyor and assistants are shown at the lower right. This illustration, like the others in the book, was etched by Wenceslaus Hollar .
A trundle wheel in use (detail from the frontispiece of Ogilby's Britannia (1675)).
Image from John Ogilby's 1675 "Britannia" atlas, showing two routes from Newmarket , Suffolk : to Wells-next-the-Sea , Norfolk and to Bury St Edmunds , Suffolk .