Geography Rectified: or, a Description of the World, In all its kingdoms, provinces, countries, islands, cities, towns, seas, rivers, bayes, capes, ports; their ancient and present names, inhabitants, situations, histories, customs, governments, &c. As also their commodities, coins, weights, and measures, compared with those at London. Illustrated with seventy six Maps. .

MORDEN (Robert).

Publication Date: 1688

About this Item

Second, enlarged, edition; quarto (200 x 155 mm); letterpress title printed in red and black, [16], 304, 321-495, 486-544, [2], 545-596pp, seventy-seven (of seventy-eight) maps, the 'catalogue' of maps, calling for seventy-six (the Armenia and Bermuda maps not called for), the Isles of Sonde map not printed on the appropriate page; text complete despite the irregular pagination. Contemporary spotted calf, covers panelled in blind, rebacked, red morocco label with gilt lettering to spine; extremities slightly worn. Manuscript on the verso of the index. London : Robert Morden & Thomas Cockerill, Robert Morden (d. 1703) was one of the most innovative of the English mapmakers and publishers in the third quarter of the seventeenth century although, as with many of his colleagues and rivals, he struggled to survive, writing in the dedication to this volume, that "Having made many considerable Improvements and Additions to my Geography in this Second Edition, I have all the reason in the world to shelter it once more under the Patronage of your Name, whose affairs abroad have not only given you a better knowledg and experience of foreign parts; but whose encouragement and bounty, next to Divine Goodness, have only contributed to Production, which otherwise with its poor Author, must have for ever lain latent under the Horizon of unknowing Obscurity, and irresistible Poverty." It is clear from the excuses that Morden made for this second edition, that the First Edition was not well received, and this motivated him to make considerable improvements; many of the existing plates were revised and corrected, but Morden also added twenty-five new maps, some replacements, some new drawn, to increase the maps from sixty-two to seventy-eight. The most significant are the suite of new regional maps for North America and the West Indies (Eastern North America; New England; Pennsylvania and New Jersey; Virginia; the Carolinas; Bermuda; Barbados), drawing on the most up-to-date knowledge. There are also new maps of England, Scotland, Wales, Cyprus and the Middle East.   In a period when English mapmakers produced few world atlases, and even fewer survive, this is the best available to the modern collector. References: ESTC R39765; Shirley, T.MORD-2c; Worms & Baynton-Williams, on Morden. .

Seller Inventory # 223220

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Geography Rectified: or, a Description of the World, In all its kingdoms, provinces, countries, islands, cities, towns, seas, rivers, bayes, capes, ports; their ancient and present names, inhabitants, situations, histories, customs, governments, &c. As also their commodities, coins, weights, and measures, compared with those at London. Illustrated with seventy six Maps. .
• Publication Date: 1688
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition