|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Royal 20 E IX
|
|
|
|
| Author |
Jean Rotz |
| Title |
Boke of Idrography (The 'Rotz Atlas') |
| Origin |
France and England |
| Date |
1542 |
| Language |
English |
| Script |
Cursive |
| Decoration |
12 double-page miniatures of maps in colours and gold, with partial foliate borders (ff. 7v-8, 9v-10, 11v-12, 13v-14, 15v-16, 17v-18, 19v-20; 21v-22; 23v-24, 25v-26, 27v-28, 29v-30). 2 full-page miniature in colours and gold, of the royal coats of arms of Henry VIII (f. 1v), and of a Tudor rose (f. 31v). 2 diagrams in colours and gold of the position of the winds and of the manner of determining the North Pole from the Polar Star (ff. 3v, 4). Full foliate borders in colours and gold (ff. 5v, 6). |
| Dimensions in mm |
570 x 380 (520 x 300) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 32 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1967. |
| Provenance |
Jean Rotz (b. c.1505, d. in or after 1560), royal hydrographer from 1542, written by him and addressed to Henry VIII, but originally intended for Francis I (b. 1494, d. 1547), king of France (f. 2); another book presented by him to Henry VIII is the ‘Traicte des differences du compas aymante’ (Royal 20 B VII).
Henry VIII (b. 1491, d. 1547), king of England and Ireland: dedicated to him; his arms supported by a red dragon and a white greyhound (f. 1v), and a badge of the Tudor rose with a crown and a motto 'Dieu et mon droict' (f. 31v).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 994' (f. 1), included in the inventory of books in the Upper Library at Westminster of 1542.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Contains the Boke of Idrography by Jean Rotz, hydrographer and navigtor of Dieppe, who probably took part in the expedition from Dieppe to Sumatra under the command of Jean Parmentier in 1529–30, and in 1539 travelled to Guinea and Brazil. |
| Select bibliography |
Catalogue of Manuscript Maps, Charts and Plans, and of the Topographical Drawings in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1844-1861), I, pp. 23-26.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 388-89.
E. G. R. Taylor, Tudor Geography 1485-1583 (London: Methuen, 1930), pp. 63-70.
The Maps and Text of the Boke of Idrography Presented by Jean Rotz to Henry VIII: Now in the British Library, ed. by Helen Wallis. (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1981) [facsimile].
Peter Barber, 'The Manuscript Legacy: Maps in the Department of manuscripts', The Map Collector, 20 (1982), 18-24 (pp. 19-19, 23 n17).
Hellen Wallis, 'The Rotz Atlas: A Royal Presentation', The Map Collector, 20 (1982), 40-42.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.994.
James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives, preface by David Starkey (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 56.
Helen Wallis, ‘Rotz, Jean (b. c.1505, d. in or after 1560)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37918, accessed 30 Nov 2009].
Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, ed. by Susan Doran (London: British Library, 2009), no. 240 [exhibition catalogue].
James P. Carley, 'Commentary', in the facsimile edition King Henry's Prayer Book (London: Folio Society, 2009), p. 48.
Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 95 [exhibition catalogue]. |
| Last revised: 06 May 2011 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
f. 4
Diagram |
ff. 13v-14
Southeast Africa and Madagascar |
ff. 15v-16
Southern Africa |
| |
f. 19v
Black Sea |
ff. 20v-21
Europe and the coasts of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean |
ff. 21v-22
Atlantic Ocean |
| |
ff. 23v-24
West Indies |
ff. 27v-28
Eastern South America |
f. 28
Eastern South America |
| |
f. 28
Brazil |
ff. 29v-30
Map of the world |
f. 30
Java |
| |
f. 30
Map of the Eastern Hemisphere |
|
|
|
|
