Darby Shire

Early c.17th hand coloured engraved map of Derbyshire by Robert Morden from, Camden’s, Britannia“, which was first published in 1595 without maps.

In 1577, with the encouragement of Abraham Ortelius, Camden began his great work Britannia, a topographical and historical survey of all of Great Britain and Ireland. The first edition, written in Latin, was published in 1586. It proved very popular, and ran through five further Latin editions, of 1587, 1590, 1594, 1600 and 1607, each greatly enlarged from its predecessor in both textual content and illustrations. The 1607 edition included for the first time a full set of English county maps, based on the surveys of Christopher Saxton and John Norden, and engraved by William Kip and William Hole. These maps were based on new information supplied by the gentlemen of each county, and were newly engraved. All the maps feature a decorative cartouche and display numerous place names.