The unveiling of Britain
This selection of maps and views traces the growing awareness of the form of British Isles and their place in the wider world from 800 to 1600.
Peter Barber
Head of Map Collections
When the ancient Greeks looked beyond their Mediterranean world, Britain was virtually invisible, lost in the mists of legend. Their view, or lack of it, survived as late as the ninth century in maps that do little more than offer a few place names. The Orkneys, for example – the fabled Orcades – are shown unconvincingly situated in the Atlantic just beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. Britain’s shape and contours were gradually uncovered by the world outside, and to some extent by its own inhabitants, during the centuries between 800 and 1600. Through the British Library’s remarkable collection, we can follow the lifting of that veil.
Curator's choice
Peter Barber highlights personal favourite items from the collection
Diagrammatic Zonal World Map, 9th Century
This vision of the world dates back to the Greece of the sixth century BC. According to the theo...
Anglo-Saxon Mappa Mundi, 1025-1050
The 'Anglo-Saxon world map' contains the earliest known, relatively realistic depiction of the Br...
Map Of The British Isles By Matthew Paris
This map belongs to the earliest surviving group of relatively detailed maps of the British Isles...
South west coast of England from Exeter to Land's End, 1539-40
This is a map of the south-west coast of England, from Exeter to Land’s End. It dates from ...
Great Yarmouth
By the reign of Elizabeth I maps were being employed as tools of government. This was encouraged ...
