![Londinum Urbs Praecipua Regni Angliae [London, the Principal City of the Kingdom of England.] By Anonymous / Pierre Alexander Aveline](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/93684.jpg)
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A rare and finely colored example of this large decorartive post-fire view of London, published in Paris by Antonio (Antione) Aveline.
This attractive view captures London from the perspective of the south, centered on London Bridge, it embraces the city from Westminster over to the Tower of London.
Below the map is a 10 point key, locates important landmarks. Most notable is St. Paul's Cathedral, which Aveline depicts in a somewhat stylised form, for the great church was then in the process of being entirely rebuilt to Sir Christopher's Wren's grand Baroque design, a process which would not be complete until 1723. The original medieval cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Also noted in the key are is the Palace of Whitehall, the important parish churches of St. Lawrence and St. Dunstan, the Palace of the Bishop of Winchester, amongst others. The River Thames is enlivened by the appearence of numerous ships.
Such large scale views depicting London as it was being rebuilt after the Great Fire are rare, and act as fascinating and historically important accounts of the development of the city during a critical time. Curiously a similar view produced by Aveline's son, Pierre Aveline (dated circa 1740) depicts the city once this process was complete, including the now-familiar dome of the finished St. Paul's.
Aveline's view is quite scarce on the market, with only a single example appearing in a dealers' catalogs in the past 20 years (Jonathan Potter, Winter 2010/11, Item 221, priced at about $7,200 USD).
![[English Channel] A New Gradnally Encreassnig Compass-map of the Comingin of the Channel, or the Heads; containing a part of the coast of Boulonnois; extending from Callis to Dannes, as also in England, from the South Foreland to Rye; with their S'hallownesses and Depths By N. deVries](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/85127.jpg)