| Method | Copper engraved |
| Artist | Loggan, David |
| Published | Dav. Loggan Delin. et Sculp. cum Privil. S.R.M. [Oxford, 1675] |
| Dimensions | 415 x 536 mm |
| Notes |
A superb bird's-eye view of the City and the most detailed map of seventeenth century Oxford, originally engraved for Loggan's 1675 first edition of Oxonia Illustrata. Loggan's plan is regarded as one of the most beautiful plans of the city and its detail remained unrivalled until the middle of the eighteenth century. Exquisitely engraved and clearly indicating all the streets, churches, colleges, and major landmarks, most of which are listed in numbered keys in the bottom corners of the map. The map shows the city at the limits of its expansion in the early modern period with virtually all the available space within the city walls depicted in Hollar's map of 1643 now built upon. The map is the first to show the recently completed Sheldonian Theatre (1669), the complete Great Quadrangle of Christ Church, albeit prior to the construction of Wren's 'Tom Tower' and the castle without its keep, demolished by the Parliamentarians during the Civil war. The plan is oriented with South at top, following the precedent set by Radulph Aggas in his 1578 map of the city. A prospect of the city from the East is featured in a scrolled box in the top left corner of the plate. Oxonia Illustrata was the first illustrated book on Oxford and one of the major works of the 17th century. The book was the product of several years of devoted and conscientious effort in which Loggan was assisted by his pupil Robert White. David Loggan was born in Danzig in 1635 and came to England around 1653. By 1665 he was living in Nuffield near Oxford and in 1669 was appointed engraver to the University. In 1675 he married and became a naturalised citizen. His Oxonia Illustrata was intended as a companion work to Historia Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis by Anthony Wood, with whom Loggan had become acquainted some years earlier. David Loggan (1635-1692), artist and engraver, was born at Danzig in 1635. He may have learnt the art of engraving from Simon van den Passe in Denmark and from Hendrik Hondius in the Netherlands. Loggan followed Hondius's sons to England in about 1653, and by 1665 he was residing at Nuffield, near Oxford, and had made the acquaintance of the antiquarian Anthony Wood. On 30 March 1669 he was appointed Engraver to the University of Oxford, with an annual salary of twenty shillings. He married a daughter of Robert Jordan, Esq. of Kencote Hall in Oxfordshire in 1671, and in 1672 they had a son, John Loggan, who later graduated from Trinity College. The marriage probably produced another son, William Loggan, about whom little is known except that he was responsible for a satirical print of Father Peters and the Jesuits, published in 1681. David Loggan took up residence in Holywell in about 1671, prior to matriculating at the University. In 1675 he was naturalised as an Englishman. The remainder of his life was spent mostly in London, where he worked as an agent and art dealer, and as Engraver to the University of Cambridge, a position he attained in 1690, two years before his death. Loggan's two great works were a series of architectural bird's eye plans of the colleges and public buildings of Oxford and Cambridge, the Oxonia Illustrata, published in 1675, and its rarer sister Cantabrigia Illustrata, which appeared at some point previous to 1690. Following Loggan's death, the plates were acquired and reprinted by Henry Overton in 1705 and c.1710 respectively. Condition: Central vertical fold, as issued. Creasing and repaired tears either side of the centre fold. Repaired split to top centrefold. Lower left corner margin repaired. Ink stain to top area near centrefold. Whole map professionally lined with Japanese tissue. |
| Framing | framed |
| Price | £2,200.00 |
| Stock ID | 53085 |