CAMDEN, William (1551-1623) - GOUGH, Richard (1735-1809) - CARY, John (1755-1835).
Britannia: or, a Chorographical Description of the Flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Islands Adjacent; from the earliest Antiquity... Enlarged by Richard Gough.
London: F. Collins for A. Swalle, 1695. [First Edition of Gibson's English Translation].

Folio (15 1/4" x 9 1/2"). Engraved frontispiece portrait of the author, 50 double-page and folding maps by Robert Morden and others (one or two marginal tears affecting the image on maps of "Surrey" and "Oxfordshire", 9 full-page engraved plates of coins and antiquities, numerous woodcuts and some engravings in the text, including a half-page engraving of Stonehenge, woodcut initials. Contemporary paneled calf, spine in six compartments with five raised bands, red morocco lettering-piece in one, the others decorated in gilt (rebacked preserving the original spine, corners strengthened, lacking rear free endpaper).

Provenance: 19th-century armorial bookplate of Michael Henry Blount of Mapledurham, Oxon (1789-1874), High Sheriff of Oxford 1832, on the front paste-down and penciled ownership inscription on the front free endpaper.

First edition of Edmund Gibson's translation, and to contain the Morden maps. First published in Latin in 1586, the first edition in English in 1610. "If Camden was not the first English historian (in the modern sense of the word), topographer and antiquarian, he was certainly the first to relate the three studies, and his "Britannia", primarily topographical, is the first book which shows. the need to evaluate sources" ("Printing and the Mind of Man" 10). The first survey of Great Britain county by county and the first study of Roman Britain as perceived in the landscape of 16th-century Britain.

At twenty Camden left Oxford with no degree "no known financial resources, patron, or position. For four years the record is silent on how this young man with no publications and no degree occupied himself. Unsubstantiated tradition has him travelling Britain, perhaps under the patronage of Gabriel Goodman, dean of Westminster, in search of antiquities and topographical and historical material that found its way into the 'Britannia'. The economic and social realities of his time were such as to make Camden in large measure the product of cultural institutions, and his disappearance during these years between known institutional affiliations is in itself interesting. Camden's appointment in 1575 as second master at Westminster School returns him to the public landscape. He spent twenty-two years at the school that was emerging as academically one of the most prestigious in the kingdom. Not only was he an effective educator and administrator, but he also travelled, collected material for and wrote the 'Britannia', brought it through its first four enlarged editions, and compiled a Greek grammar. In 1576 he inherited his father's property in Staffordshire which provided him with additional financial security. As early as 1577 he came to the attention of the great geographer Abraham Ortelius, then travelling in England, who encouraged Camden in his national enterprise, and whose work provided him with a model for topographical and historical writing. Further encouraged and supported by Dean Gabriel Goodman and his nephew Godfrey Goodman, Camden travelled extensively in pursuit of topographical and antiquarian information: in 1578 through Suffolk and Norfolk, and in 1582 to Yorkshire and Lancashire. Working with a knowledge of the current continental methods and the example and friendship of English scholars such as Alexander Nowell, William Lambarde, his schoolmate Richard Carew, and others, he developed his own approach to empirical research into topographical and historical study through travel, archival scholarship, and the use of original documents, along with the deployment of linguistic and philological evidence and artefacts for interpreting historical and cultural events. "As his work advanced Camden's reputation spread, well before the eventual publication of the 'Britannia' in 1586. Scholars from across Europe, both protestant and Roman Catholic, included a meeting with Camden on their itinerary when they came to England. Geographers such as Gerardus Mercator, lawyers such as Alberico Gentili, scholar.