Beschribung Engellandts und Schottlandts [England & Scotland]

An attractive and early map of Great Britain.

This important 16th-century woodcut map presents the kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland during the early modern period, as well as a portion of the French coast across the English Channel. A fascinating variety of settlements, regions, and geographic features are painstakingly labeled throughout using typefaces that were set into the wood at printing.

The modern capitals of Edinburgh, London, and Dublin are identified, as well as lesser-known cathedral cities like Arford (St. David’s) and Kuschn (Douglas) on the Isle of Man. The Scottish Highlands, north of Aberdeen, is depicted pictorially, though the geography has been slanted towards the east. Shirley theorizes this may have been a practical effort by the cartographer to fit the information on the page.

The map was first issued in the 1578 edition of Sebastian Munster’s Cosmographia published in Basel, though this is likely a later version due to slight variations in the woodcut. Finding the precise date is difficult, as the page number did not change across the multiple editions in which it was included. The Cosmographia, first published in 1544, was one of the most important texts of the 16th century and influenced geographic thought for generations of scholars and mapmakers. According to Magdalena Peszko of the British Library;

“The Cosmographia is a compendium of historical and geographical knowledge compiled from information gathered as part of Münster’s personal research, international collaborations and editions of the classical authors. The work was based on up-to-date knowledge and provided the geographical and historical overview of the world, natural history, topographical features, boundaries and administrative division of the described lands, their inhabitants, flora and fauna.”

The map of England and Scotland is one of the ‘modern’ maps that Munster created specifically for his work, using methods devised by the ancient Greek scholar Ptolemy. A fascinating product of the Renaissance era that reflects tremendous developments in contemporary thought.

Sources: British Library Blog; Columbia University; Shirley, Early Printed Maps Of The British Isles, 122.