Maps

A Generall Mapp of ASIA

Designed by Mounsie^R Sanson Geographer to the French King & Rendered into English,

& Ilustrated by Ric: Blome. By his Maj^tisEspecial Command

Richard Blome

London 1669

This scarce map of Asia is the earliest folio-size map of Asia to be engraved, printed and published in England; while the map of Asia in John Speed's atlas of 1627 was published prior to Blome’s, Speed’s plates were engraved and printed in Amsterdam.  The map features both a title cartouche at top left and an elaborate heraldic cartouche at top right, with the dedication: “To the Right Honorab^ll & truly Noble Henry Bennet Baron Arlington d’Arlington in Com Middlesex on^e of his Majesties Principall Secretaries of State &c”.

The map covers an area from 'Land of the Papous', lower left, to 'Sweden', upper right.

Henry Bennet (c1620-1685) held the office of Secretary of State between 1662 and 1674 and was created 1st Baron Arlington, of Arlington, Middlesex in 1664.  In 1670 he was one of the five principal members of the Privy Council to whom the King alone revealed his policy (Sir Thomas Clifford, Lord Ashley, Duke of Buckingham, Lord Arlington and Lord Lauderdale, whose initials CABAL gave rise to the folk etymology for the word “cabal” meaning a secret group). He was invested as a Knight of the Order of the Garter and created 1st Viscount Thetford and 1st Earl of Arlington in 1672.  Arlington held the office of Lord Chamberlain of the Household from 1674 until his death.

Blome's maps are both rare and important in the history of English cartography.  Blome, one of the most active map-publishers of his day, began engraving maps for his Geographical Description Of The Four Parts Of The World in 1667 (his first attempt at engraving maps).  The completed volume was in small folio, and contained 24 maps (plus one duplicated), engraved by Francis Lamb, Thomas Burnford and Wenceslas Hollar.  

Blome's principal handicap in the production of the atlas was the lack of a domestic mapmaking environment comparable with that in Europe. To finance his work, Blome took on subscribers, who paid 10s. in advance and 10s. on delivery in exchange for having a dedication and their coat of arms engraved on individual maps.  In later editions of the atlas, if an additional “renewal fee” was not paid Blome replaced the earlier cartouche with a different subscriber’s coat of arms.  The second edition of A Generall Mapp of Asia, published in c1675, is dedicated to “The R^t. Noble Christopher Duke of Albemarle, Earle of Torington, Baron Monk of Potheridge, Beauchamp and Teys …”.

To quote Ashley Baynton-Williams:

“It would be hard to claim a successful career for Blome, but he occupies a very important position in the history of the English map-trade of the seventeenth century.  He was the first publisher in England for 40 years to prepare a new folio world atlas, the first in over 60 years to publish a new set of (albeit small) folio county maps, the first to seriously plan an illustrated description of London, and the first to plan a series of volumes related to the various Continents of the World.  Moreover, all this from one who came from a publishing rather than cartographic background.”

Thank you to Peter Geldart for the research.