Antique Maps of Italy

John Crane Dower was a publisher, engraver and draughtsman working at 6 Cumming Lane Place, Pentonville, London. He engraved for many well know cartographers of the day including Henry Teesdale, Thomas Moule, W. Swire and C. & J. Greenwood.

His son John James Dower was born in 1825. He became an engraver and also worked in Pentonville taking the business over after his father's deatch in 1847. He engraved for Orr & Co., the Illustrated London News as well as the Dispatch Atlas.

A mapmaker and engraver who originated from Germany but came to England in the 1670’s and set himself up as a mapmaker, mapseller and engraver. He first set up shop in London at Vanley’s Court, Blackfriars but later settled in Deveraux Court in the Strand. You will find his name on maps other than his own as he engraved for quite a number of well known cartographers including Greenville Collins, Moses Pitt and John Seller amongst others. His own works include atlases both of the British Isles Counties as well as the Countries of the World.

Joseph Roux was a hydrographer and maritime artists following in his father's footsteps who was also a hydrographer and named Joseph Roux. His business premises were in Marseille situated on the north quay where he sold navigational instruments as well as charts. Well known from his publication 'Receuil Des Principaux Plans ddes Ports at Rades de la Mer' the title page of which is illustrated above.

John Senex was born in Ludlow in Shropshire, England. He was apprenticed to Robert Clavell a Londin bookseller in 1695. Seven years later he set up business as a engraver,surveyor, bookseller and publisher of mapss, atlases and globes. He ran the business in partnership with Charles Price and John Maxwell moving to quite a number of addresses in London. 'Against St. Clements Church in the Strand' 1702; ''Next to the Fleece Tavern in Cornhill' 1703 - 1706;'at their Houses in Whites Alley'Coleman Street' 1707 -1710; 'at the Globe in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street' 1710 - 1721; 'against St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street' 1710 - 1721.

In 1728 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Being a prominent English mapmaker he published many maps and atlases in his lifetime of the British Isles as well as World Atlases. He died in 1740 but his wife Mary continued running the business until 1753. The stock of maps was acquired by Robert Sayer.

Henri Michelot was a French hydrographer and pilot. He worked with Laurent Brémond producing many fine maps and atlases mainly of the Mediterranean Sea.

SDUK is short for Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The idea for the Society was conceived by Henry Brougham the son of Henry and Eleanor Brougham, landowners in Westmorland. He was born in Edinburgh in 1778 and became a student at Edinburgh University at the age of 14. He worked as a lawyer in Edinburgh and later went into politics becoming a member of the House of Commons in 1810. In the 1820’s he was actively involved in educational reform and hence the SDUK with the object of publishing information for people belonging to the working class and middle classes who were unable to get formal education or preferred the idea of self education. One of their most widely read publications was the Penny Magazine. Maps were just another part of their publishing. The map committee was founded in 1828 with the first two maps published in 1829 under the title A Series of Maps, Modern and Ancient. The aim of the Society was to reach as many people as possible. This meant keeping cost of production down with the idea of a low selling price. You would not guess this today as each of their maps is a handsome work of art. Accurate in their detail, finely engraved and printed on a good quality paper. Over a period of 14 years the series expanded to 209 plates with over 3 millions maps being sold. Up until 1842 the design and engraving was under the direct control of the SDUK using the publishers Balwin and Craddock until their insolvency. From 1842 to 1844 the maps were published by Chapman and Hall, Charles Knight from 1844 to the completion of the series in 1846. Knight continued the publishing until 1852 when the plates were sold to George Cox and then Edward Stanford in 1856. The plates were later acquired by Thomas Letts in 1877 and then finally by Mason & Payne in 1885.

Henry Brougham went on to have an interesting but not lifelong career in politics. He was raised to the peerage in 1830 as Baron Brougham of Brougham in the County of Westmorland. He was Lord Chancellor for four years and was responsible for the passings of the Reform Act of 1832 and Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 but after this he never held office again although he continued to contribute to the debates in the House of Lords. He died in 1868

One of the big names in early cartography. Perhaps because of his extraordinary Theatrum Orbis Terrarum which is recognised to be the first atlas of the new age. A collection of maps of a uniform style and size taken from the works of some 87 mapmakers. A first.

Abraham Ortelius was born in Antwerp and became a publisher, mapmaker, cosmographer and publisher. But he started as an engraver and map colourist. To add to his income he traded in maps and prints and visited the world's largest annual book fair in Frankfurt. Here he met Gerard Mercator. The two of them later travelled together in Europe. He published his first map, a wall map of the World on 8 sheets in 1564 in Antwerp. It was 6 years later on May 20th, 1570 that he published his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum containing 70 maps. Over the next 28 years a total of 25 extended editions were published in Latin, German, French and Dutch. He was appointed Royal Geographer to King Philip II of Spain in 1575.

He died in Antwerp in 1598 aged 71.