A rare map of the British Isles with a prospect of the Great Fire of 1666

HOLLAR, Wenceslaus.

A new and Exact Map of Great Brityannie Containing the three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, with the Principality of Wales etc, as also An Addition of severall of y.e Cheeef Citties belonging to the sayd kingdomes.
London: John Overton, 1667. 425 x 535mm.

A map of the British Isles published the year after the Great Fire of London destroyed the city, so commemorating the event with insets 'A Map of Both Citties London and Westminster, before the Fire' and 'Prospect of the Citty of London as it Appeared in the Time of the Flames'. The other insets are plans of York, Edinburgh, Dublin, Oxford and Cambridge.
Although it is unsigned, the map is unmistakably the work of Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-77), the Bohermian etcher famous for his 'Long View' of London, published in 1647.
Published so soon after the Great Fire, it underlines the need for Londoners to find a scapegoat for the calamity. Under the view of the fire is a descriptive text, which lays the blame on Frenchman Robert Hubert, who confessed to being part of a gang that set the fire. He was hanged at Tyburn a month after the fire, before it was shown he was on a ship in the North Sea when the fire began.

SHIRLEY: Overton 1, state i of iii.
Stock ID : 24086