ROXBURGHE CLUB. WALLIS (Helen) Editor.

The Maps and Text of the Boke of Idrography Presented by Jean Rotz to Henry VIII now in the British Library. With a Foreword by Viscount Eccles.

      Printed for Presentation to Members of the Roxburghe Club, Oxford. 1981. Large folio, xvi,96pp., coloured vignette to title-page, 16 coloured double-page facsimiles of which 12 are of the maps, cont. half morocco, gilt decoration on upper cover. Presented by Rotz to the King in 1542, this magnificent atlas remained largely unnoticed until the beginning of the nineteenth century when it was examined in the British Library by James Burney. It is of great importance not least as a brilliant example of the work of the “Dieppe” school of hydrographers, the foremost in France, but also for its lavish decoration, and among many hydrographical points of interest, the delineation of what purports to be a section of the eastern coast of Australia. Viscount Eccles made this beautifully printed facsimile for members of the Roxburghe club, and it is certainly one of the most ambitious private publications undertaken in recent years. The new text, edited by Helen Wallis, includes articles by a number of scholars placing the atlas in its context from several view points.