Dimensions
328 x 218 x 5mm
These beautifully-produced colouring books present over four volumes, thirty county maps of England and Wales.
The maps were produced in the early 17th century by the cartographic engraver William Hole to accompany the vast landscape poem Poly-Olbion by Michael Drayton, one of the most famous poets of his age.
Arguably the strangest maps of Britain ever designed, they depict the familiar rolling countryside as a playful fairyland,bustling with otherworldly beings. Every topographical feature is anthropomorphised, a form of depiction known asprosopopeia: hills are represented as stout country gentlemen,rivers as water nymphs, forests as elegant huntresses.The poetry and maps of Poly-Olbion came out of the Renaissance vogue for chorography, the art of describing place, and together they provide one of the most detailed overviews of the rich landscape, history, and legends of Early Modern England and Wales.
This is a colouring book to keep and treasure as a complex, endlessly rewarding work of art.
