One of the earliest maps of Barbados

By OGILBY, John, 1670

Novissima et Acuratissima Barbados Descriptio.

America Caribbean

Author: OGILBY, John
Publication place: London
Publication date: 1670
Physical description: Engraved chart, minor tear just within lower neatline skilfully repaired.
Dimensions: 310 by 370mm (12.25 by 14.5 inches).
Inventory reference: 2620

Notes

The chart identifies Plantation owners, towns, bays, rivers and includes vignettes showing the indigenous crops; including a Cabbage Tree, Indian Corn, Pineapple Tree, Sugar Cane, and a sugar mill.

Published in John Ogilby’s America, one of the most influential English works on America published in the 17th Century.

Bibliography

Tooley 3.

Biography

John Ogilby (1600–1676)

John Ogilby is one of the most interesting of all British mapmakers, remarkable for the way that he dealt with successive adversities in his private life: having to work at an early age to pay off his father’s debts, a dancer whose career ended with a dance injury, a theatre owner who saw the theatre destroyed in riots, along with all his possessions, and a literary publisher whose stock was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but surviving, going on to become Cosmographer to King Charles II.

More about John Ogilby