Chili Ogilby, John Chile,Map,South America

Map. Engraving with hand coloring. Measures 12.25 x 14.24". Includes the Andes Mountains and the names of many islands and points on the Chilean coast. Fantastic commodities cartouche of Indigenous people mining gold. Margins trimmed but otherwise in good condition. John Ogilby (1600--1676) is often noted in the literature for his wide ranging pursuits--dancer, actor, translator, tutor, among others--that, more often than not, ended in failure. But rather than thinking of these pursuits as unsuccessful, they might be better considered as steps toward his ultimate destiny: cartography. Ogilby got his first taste of the trade in 1666--himself at the age of 66--by surveying and mapping London after the Great Fire. The project inspired him to pursue and publish geographical descriptions of the wider world, including China, Japan, and Africa. In 1675, a year after he was appointed "Kings Cosmographer and Geographic Painter," he published the defining work of his career: a road atlas of England entitled "Britannia." The original volume was the first road atlas to include physical features from the landscape and was notable for its scale of one inch to a standard mile. This impressive and innovative volume finally secured Ogilby's place in the history books one of the most memorable and important figures of 17th-century cartography. This is a wonderful example of his work.