Full color example of Ogilby's map of the Southeast, extending from the York River in Virginia to northern Florida.
The map shows the area from the lower Chesapeake Bay to northern Florida. The map is a faithful reduction of Willem Blaeu's important prototype map of 1638, which Cumming considered to be the "most correct map of this area yet to appear." This reduced example is "more decorative than the Blaeu in that it bears two large decorative cartouches depicting native scenes." -- Burden.
This map was first published in Montanus's landmark Amerika, perhaps the greatest illustrated book on the New World produced in the 17th century. Montanus's work contained over one hundred beautifully engraved plates, views and maps of North and South America.
Beginning in 1671, the map also appeared in early issues of the English edition of Montanus, issued by John Ogilby, but was replaced c. 1673, by the famous First Lords Propreitors map, which gave a more up to date picture of the English presence in Carolina.
John Ogilby (1600-1676) was an English geographer and publisher, one of the most prominent of the seventeenth century. Little is known of his early life but by 1619 he was apprenticed to John Draper, a dancing-master in London. He worked as a dancing-master, courtier, and theater owner form 1620-1641. From 1649 he worked as a poet, translator, and publisher of classical texts. It is only in the last decade of his life that he entered into geography.
In 1649, Ogilby published his first translation, of Virgil, and continued to put out translations in the 1650s and 1660s. In March 1661 he was reconfirmed as master of revels in Ireland and appointed master of the king’s imprimeries, or king’s printer. From 1662 to 1665 he was in Ireland, where he most likely met Robert Boyle. He returned to London only to lose much of his printing stock in the Great Fire of 1666. Post-fire, he became assistant surveyor to the city, where he met Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren.
In 1669, Ogilby published Embassy to China. At the same time, he planned to release atlases that would cover the entire world. These atlases would be funded via subscriptions, advertisements, and lotteries—all common practice at the time, especially for expensive multi-volume works. He released Africa and Atlas Japannensis in 1670, America in 1671 and Atlas Chinensis in 1671, and Asia in 1673. Ogilby compiled the works based on materials produced by others and they reflect a growing interest in the wider world within England.
In 1671, while producing the atlases, Ogilby secured another royal title, that of his Majesty’s cosmographer. He used this title when publishing Britannia in 1675, his best-known work. The Britannia is best described as a road atlas; it shows 2519 miles of road in 100 strip maps. This technique would be widely adopted in the subsequent century. His method of measuring with a waywiser, a large wheel, also helped to standardize the distance of the English mile at 1760 yards. The Britannia was a major achievement in early English cartography and was republished in 1698, 1719, and 1720.