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Rare map 'should be on show'
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| Call: Richard Ovenden |
ONE of the most important maps ever made in Britain should be placed on display, according to a member of staff at Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
The Gough Map, which dates from about 1360, is the earliest surviving map of Great Britain to show routes across the UK and to depict the island with a recognisable coastline.
Richard Ovenden, keeper of special collections at the Bodleian, believes the map is such an important historical document that it should be on display for the public.
He said the map was high on the list of items the library hoped to display, following a £5m donation from Julian Blackwell, to pay for ambitious redevelopment plans.
"Schoolchildren from Oxfordshire will benefit from purpose-built facilities so they can engage with some of the Bodleian's treasures," Mr Ovenden said. Earlier this month, he warned that the renovation project, which is expected to start in 2010 and finish in 2012, would only happen if the Bodleian could free up space in the library, by building a £29m book depository on the Osney Mead industrial estate.
Although the identity of the map-maker is unknown, the Gough map can be accurately dated by historical references and handwriting on the map.
The anonymous artefact, which takes its name from Richard Gough, an 18th-century authority on British topography, has fascinated historians for centuries.
The map, recently digitised, is now more legible than at any other time since its arrival in the Bodleian in 1809.The Gough Map
The digitisation process has also made it possible to project a modern map of Britain over the Gough Map, demonstrating the remarkable accuracy of much of the 650-year-old route map.
The map shows in detail the principal medieval settlements of Great Britain, such as Bristol, Oxford, and Norwich; the rivers Severn, Thames, and Humber, the loop of the Wear at Durham, routes between towns, marked in red with distances included in Roman numerals, and even a single tree, identifying the New Forest.
Nick Millea, map librarian of the Bodleian and author of The Gough Map:The Earliest Road Map of Great Britain?, published last year, said following the book's publication: "The Gough Map is one of the Bodleian Library's greatest treasures.
"There is no record of any similar contemporary map at such scale or indeed accuracy: such is its quality and detail that it remained the blueprint for cartographers for 200 years."
A planning inquiry into the building of the book depository is expected to take place in the summer, after city councillors turned down the proposal and the Bodleian appealed against the decision.
6:02am Thursday 27th March 2008
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CommentPosted by: Carl, Oxford on 2:02pm Thu 27 Mar 08
Link to digital version is available via http://www.bodley.ox
.ac.uk/users/nnj/gou
ghmap.htm
Link to digital version is available via http://www.bodley.ox
.ac.uk/users/nnj/gou
ghmap.htm
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