Antique 17th Century Road Map of Oxford to Cambridge, John Ogilby

A handsome large antique 17th century strip map with later hand colouring, titled “The Road from Oxford to Cambridge”, from the first road atlas of England and Wales, by noted mapmaker John Ogilby (1600-1676). John Ogilby was Cosmographer to King Charles II and his publication “Britannia” was the first national road atlas of any country in Western Europe. He designed an accurate and easy to use map system which reads from bottom to top and left to right. Ogilby’s “Britannia” atlas was also truly ground-breaking in its time, as it was the first survey of roads in the British Isles and marked the first use of the so-called “Waywiser”, a wheeled device, one complete revolution of which marked one yard. This map features a decorative cartouche showing a surveyor using a “waywiser”. The road commences at Oxford and runs through Bicester, Buckingham, Newport Pagnall, Bedford, and Gamlingay, and ends at Cambridge. Of the 100+ maps in the published atlas, this may well be the most popular, showing as it does the way between the two best known university towns of the age. Would make a wonderful graduation gift.