The Queen's Atlas
Saxton's Elizabethan Masterpiece
$54.99
- Hardcover
232 pages
- Release Date
5 November 2025
Summary
Nowadays, we take for granted the ready availability of maps of all kinds. In mid-Tudor England, they were rare. All this was to change in 1579 when Christopher Saxton, a farmer from the West Riding of Yorkshire, became the first cartographer to make a published atlas of all the counties of England and Wales. This book traces the story of Saxton’s life and legacy by reconstructing his extraordinary mapmaking project alongside the crucial nature of the support and encouragement he received fro…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781851246205 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1851246207 |
| Author: | David Fletcher |
| Publisher: | Bodleian Library |
| Imprint: | Bodleian Library |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 232 |
| Release Date: | 5 November 2025 |
| Weight: | 1.21kg |
| Dimensions: | 29mm x 257mm x 217mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
The Queen’s Atlas is a truly beautiful reminder that maps are the perfect synthesis of science and art, geography and history, politics, power and propaganda. This fascinating account of Christopher Saxton’s life and work is also a time machine, whisking us back to the intrigues of the Tudor court, and its ravenous hunger for knowledge of the lie of its land. Saxton’s maps changed the country for ever; with erudite clarity, David Fletcher tells us why, and shows us how.
Mike Parker, author of Map Addict and All the Wide Border
Finally, a definitive account of Christopher Saxton, the founder of modern regional English mapmaking, and his extraordinary atlas. David Fletcher has produced a seamless marriage of words and images in helping us understand the origins and significance of this monumental act of Tudor mapmaking. A wonderful achievement.’
Jerry Brotton, author of Four Points of the Compass: the Unexpected History of Direction and A History of the World in Twelve Maps.
‘There are lots of other eye-catching images in what is to my mind a thrilling and lovely book, and Fletcher’s commentary is invaluable in helping you understand Saxton’s work…’
– Mathew Lyons[This] new book is hefty and lavish. It includes a history of Saxton’s involvement and sets out the context around the birth of the scheme, the surveying methods and the legacy of the work. Pleasingly, it also reproduces vibrant
copies of each of the 35 maps in the atlas, most of which feature a single county.
About The Author
David Fletcher
Dr DAVID FLETCHER is an independent researcher specialising in the history of cartography of England and Wales in the early modern and modern eras.
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