Richard Blome | Britannia: or, a geographical description of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. London, 1673

Richard Blome

Britannia: or, a geographical description of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. London: Thomas Roycroft for the undertaker, Richard Blome, 1673

FIRST EDITION, folio (320 x 198 mm.), printed title in red and black, 50 engraved regional and county maps, 5 folding, full-page plan of London and 12 leaves printed recto and verso containing 24 plates showing 812 coats of arms, contemporary calf, spine with raised bands in six compartments, marbled edges, modern endpapers, worming at upper margin running from start of textblock to p. 56 (not affecting text or plates), rebacked 

Richard Blome conceived a series of atlases in the manner of the earlier English Atlas project of John Ogilby, his Britannia intended as a volume three. He is described as "a publisher and compiler of some celebrity, who, by the aid of subscription adroitly levied, issued many splendid works" (DNB).

PROVENANCE:

Viscount Gage, armorial bookplate

LITERATURE:

Skelton 90; Chubb XCIX; Wing B3207