This beautiful county map of Westmorland (now part of Cumbria) is one of the earliest printed maps of the county. It was published by Johannes Kip in 1637 to illustrate a new edition of William Camden's Britannia. The geography is derived from the first printed map of Westmorland, published by Christopher Saxton in his Atlas of the Counties of England and Wales (1579), the first atlas of British counties. Kip gives credit to Saxton for the creation of the map in the lower-left corner, claiming only the honour of engraving the map for himself.



Kip's map is smaller and lacking in some of the grander decorative elements of Saxton's earlier map, but it retains much of the charm associated with early 17th century cartography with large strapwork cartouches, swash lettering, and crudely-drawn features. These Saxton/Kip maps remain desirable as they are more commercially available than Saxton's much rarer originals.



Coloured.