Christopher Saxton

Atlas of the counties of England and Wales, 1579 The foundation of English county mapping. Saxton began surveying in 1574, printed 34 county maps one by one until 1578, and issued them with a general map as an atlas in 1579, with Elizabeth I's portrait as the frontispiece and Thomas Seckford's arms on every map. This atlas formed the basis of county maps for more than a hundred years, so many later maps, Speed's among them, rest on Saxton's work. Saxton's plates were reissued long after his death with altered imprints and dates, so read the imprint to tell a first-generation sheet from a later printing; both are period maps, but they are not the same thing.