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A richly embellished 19th-century plan of Oxford, engraved for Thomas Moule and combining Gothic ornament, heraldic display, and a detailed depiction of the historic university town. First published in 1837 and issued through the early 1840s, this map exemplifies the decorative cartographic style for which Moule is best known.
The plan shows Oxford’s street layout and college quads with fine line engraving. The medieval city wall is traced, the Rivers Isis and Cherwell are shaded and labeled, and features such as the Botanic Garden, Christ Church Meadow, and the city’s gates are carefully rendered. A border of college arms and civic heraldry surrounds the map: the upper margin is lined with shields of Oxford’s colleges, the University arms appear at center top, and the City of Oxford’s arms at lower left.
Along the bottom, two finely engraved vignette views add visual drama and topographical context. At left is the south elevation of Christ Church College with Tom Tower; at right is a pastoral prospect of the Oxford skyline viewed from the north, with spires, domes, and towers rising beyond shaded meadows. Between them, the city’s medieval common seal is set within a Gothic canopy.
