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Examples |
London
in the Olden Time
c. 1538
Description by Archive CD Books, Canada.
Full title: London in the Olden Time, being a Topographical and
Historical Memoir of London, Westminster, and Southwark, Accompanying
a Pictorial Map of the City and its Suburbs, as they existed in
the reign of Henry VIII., before the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Compiled from Ancient documents and other authentic sources."
By William Newton, author of a display of heraldry, and published
for the author by Bell and Daldy, 66, Chancery Lane in 1855 (MDCCCLV).
This is a truly fascinating map & book, providing the reader
with a detailed and intimate peep into Britain's London near the
end of the reign of the infamous Henry VIII, just before his dissolution
of the monasteries.
Or, to be more precise, this is the view offered by the wonderfully
detailed and supposedly accurate, 52 in. by 40 in. pictorial map,
one of the two parts of this book.
The other part of the book is called, by the author William Newton,
an "Accompanying Memoir" and it provides amazing detail
of the origins, purpose and fates of hundreds of the buildings and
locations which are illustrated on the map. This map is more than
just the overhead plan of the city's streets, which is what this
term normally implies, and the clue to why is in the word "pictorial."
As well as providing a "to scale" layout of the streets,
William has drawn in the profiles of the buildings - in the locations
where they stand. This means you not only get to understand the
city's layout, but you can get a first hand impression of what it
would have been like to walk the streets.
William doesn't give a particular reason why he chose this part
of London's long history as the setting for his work except that
he does indicate that none of the historic records he used in his
research individually provided a complete and accurate picture of
the city either in topography or in architecture.
Also, of course, the impending dissolution of the monasteries brought
about great change in the ownership and use of many of the formerly
religious buildings. Another reason may be that, the chosen period
is only about 100 years prior to the Great Fire (1666) which destroyed
so many of the ancient buildings and opened the way for sweeping
changes in the city's landscape.
In spite of all these later changes, today's reader will constantly
find themselves familiar with the names given in the text - even
if one has only a passing knowledge of the modern city.
Based on the author's introduction we have dated the map at c1583,
mainly for simplicity of reference.
Still, the author chose to include a line on the map showing the
extent of the later Great Fire. He kept this line visually non invasive
so that it took us a great deal of time to find and trace it on
the map.
To make it a little easier for the reader to see, we have provided
a second extracted portion of the map with the line highlighted.
The printing technologies of the 1855 publication date would not
provide for the printing of a map of this size on a single sheet
of paper and a careful examination will reveal the well matched
joins of the multiple sheets of which the map was originally composed.
What is more obvious, however, is that the publisher, having regard
for the wear and tear which a "fold out" map suffers,
decided to cut the map into 18 separate sheets and paste them together
on a linen backing.
While this has allowed the map to survive multiple foldings over
the intervening 150 odd years in relatively excellent condition
it does mean the "folds" are very obvious.
We experimented while processing the scanned map to see if we should
electronically rejoin the 18 sections for you but discovered that
to make the joins invisible we would have to distort the original
map.
Consequently we are bringing you the map exactly as it appears
in the original book, in 18 separated, but approximately aligned,
panels.
It really doesn't matter if you are a long time resident of London,
or if you are a complete stranger, when you start to read the stories
in this book, and see the places where it happened on the map, you
are going to find yourself reliving the history of this colorful
and great old city.
We are able to bring you this great book as a result of the generosity
in sharing of Mrs. Claire Alexander.
Claire has been a long time fan of this book and originally approached
us with a question about the possibility of making a scan of such
a large map. A long discussion led us eventually to the making of
this CD in which, as you can see, Claire gets her scanned map. Please
join with us in thanking Claire for her generosity and wish her
well in her ambition to become an author.
The Map is NOT computer searchable.
Machine Searchable
The Map is NOT computer searchable.
A digital version of the original book, in PDF format.
Viewable on any computer using Adobe Acrobat Reader
(compatible with V4 or above, V7 or higher recommended).
Archive CD Books Canada
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