Whole of Britain & British Isles

43x35 cm

BRITANNIA Romana.

The British Isles as it was divided during the Roman occupation. 
Produced by Robert Morden (fl.1669-1703) for publication in Edmund Gibson's translation of William Camden's Britannia, London, Awnsham and John Churchill and Abel Swale, 1695.
The work is best known for the editions that included county maps of which Morden's, in 1695, were the first. Also included were two historical maps, this one of Britain during the Roman occupation, and one of England and Wales under the Saxon Heptarchy.
The work was republished in 1722, 1730, 1753 and 1772. There were a number of minor alterations to most plates during the early editions. They were substantially updated for the 1722 edition with changes to place name spellings and the plates were re-worked, due to wear caused by the printing process, for the 1753 edition.
Robert Morden (fl. 1669-1703) mapmaker, mapseller, globemaker, engraver and publisher, is best known for his county maps published in Camden’s Britannia and little is known of his early life. His output was considerable, producing maps and other works in association with many other well known mapmakers and publishers including John Overton, Philip Lea, William Morgan and  Christopher Browne.  He was a frequent partner of William Berry from the Wakefield area of Yorkshire who was apprenticed to Joseph Moxon, it is most probable that Morden was also apprenticed to Moxon and, given that the Morden name and variants of it are common in Wakefield, he may also come from that area. Morden is recorded as having the polymath Robert Hooke and diarist Samuel Pepys among his customers and associates. He was a member of the Weavers company and churchwarden of his parish church, St. Christopher-le-Stocks, 1679-1680. He and his wife Mary baptised at least seven children at the same church and he was buried with his wife “in ye north ile” on 25th August 1703. Morden did not receive royal appointments granted to less able contemporaries, and he described himself as having “lain latent under the horizon of unknown obscurity and irresistible poverty” and hoped for “better rewards” in the next world.

A very good example from the 1695 edition of Camden's Britannia in neat later hand colour.