Britannia, Or a Chorographical Description of Great Britain and Ireland, Together with the Adjacent Islands, written in Latin by William Camden, Clarenceux, King at Arms, and Translated into English, with Additions and Improvements

The second edition of Camden’s Britannia was first published in Latin in 1586, and in Gibson’s English translation in 1695. Awnsham Churchill brought out an issue in 1722. This imprint issued between 1722 and 1725. Complete in two volumes. Volume one: engraved portrait frontispiece, and nine plate illustrations depicting coins, two smaller illustrations showing Stonehenge and a second stone circle in Oxfordshire, eleven double page county maps by Robert Morden and two double page regional maps. Volume two has eight double page county maps by Robert Morden, one plate illustration of coins and relics, three further double page regional maps and two fold-out maps. Both volumes have further smaller illustrations in text, decorative head and tail pieces and initial caps. Title pages printed in red and black with decorative ruled double borders. Small elephant folio (15.5 inches tall). Volume one has a letter, dated 1948 bound in, from the British Library which states: “the copy of Camden’s Britannia which you describe is evidently an unrecorded issue of the 2nd edition of 1722. The names of the various publishers given in the imprint demonstrate that this issue must have been published between 1721 and 1725, since their periods of activity limit the work to these dates. In the 18th century it was common practice for different issues of an edition to be published with different title-pages, the proprietors of each issue being alone named in its imprint. Thus the proprietor of Chubb’s No CXV was Awnsham Churchill; those of your issue were the partners named on the title page”. In a later – 20th century – library binding with replacement endpapers: red cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering to spine (very lightly rubbed at edges, a few light, scattered scratches). Reference library ownership plate on front paste down of both volumes. Occasional ownership embossed stamps throughout. Internally very neat, clean, bright and fresh barring a small mild ink stain at the top of p. xcv and some notes in an old copperplate hand on the chipped last page of volume two.