Maps
Printed and manuscript works by famous names in map-making, including Gerardus Mercator, Christopher Saxton and John Speed.
Many of the finest examples of maps come from the Rylands collection including the Ulm 1482 edition of Ptolemy's Geographia with woodcut maps based on contemporary discoveries, the Basle 1550 edition of Munster's Cosmography with accurate town plans, two mid-sixteenth century manuscript portolan charts and a hand-coloured copy of the 1636 Mercator/Hondius Atlas.
English maps in the collections include the earliest (1579) series of survey maps of England and Wales, by Saxton, the first edition of Speed's Theatre of the empire of Great Britain (1611), Bowen's practical road-atlas, Britannia depicta (1720) and Allport's 1822 lithograph of a 1565 "Mappe of part of the township of Leverpoole". There is a small selection of nineteenth century local maps.
See Maps in Highlights gallery
- Maps of China 15th-18th century (pdf)
- Liverpool maps and guide books