During a visit to Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, in 1991 members of the International Map Collectors' Society glimpsed, amongst other cartographic treasures, a rare sixteenth century atlas of Italian maps; a so-called "Lafreri" atlas[1]. Very few of these Italian atlas factice are known in private hands, and this example is exceptional in that all the maps are in outstanding contemporary colour. The atlas had been in the hands of the Cecil family, the owners of the house, since Elizabethan times. Following the visit. Rodney Shirley was invited to collate the atlas more fully and relate its contents to others of the same genre.

Part of the western hemisphere of Tramezzino's large map of the world, dating from 1554. This is one of the most striking of the world maps sometimes found in Italian atlases. The Americas, particularly North America, have a configuration not usually found elsewhere. The cartographer has only committed himself to a coastline covering the south and south-west part of North America, and California is an extremely slender penininsula. (By courtesy of the Marquess of Salisbury)

IT IS ONLY very infrequently that a new Lafreri-type atlas comes to light. The example at Hatfield House is virtually unrecorded; it has, of course, been known to the family and was mentioned in almost a throw-away sentence in the large volume prepared in a limited edition for private presentation to Roxburghe Club members in 1971.[2] The editor, R.A. Skelton, said. "In 1566 or soon after perhaps by the agency of Laurence Nowell, Cecil acquired a world atlas of engraved Italian maps assembled, possibly to his order, by a map publisher of Rome."

The Library at Hatfield House contains many rare items, but apart from a brief mention in a TMC article, I have not found any further references to the Hatfield atlas[3]. It is the only one of fifty or sixty such surviving atlases with, as far as I am aware, its contents in full contemporary colour. The condition of the maps (except for one or two which are worn along their folds) is generally excellent and the colouring striking. Some of the maps are more heavily coloured than others and in some cases glazing has been applied so that it appears as if the map has been printed on vellum. The impressions are usually strong and dark and this, coupled with their shining colouring, makes them stand out from the page with remarkable effect.

The left hand half of Antonio Lafreri's double-cordiform map of the world centred on the North Pole, dating from c.1564. Lafreri has used a plate engraved by his predecessor, Antonio Salamanca, and the map is based, without acknowledgement, on Gerard Mercator's earlier double cordiform world map of 1538. (By courtesy of the Marquess of Salisbury)


One of the earliest printed representations of Ireland. The out-jutting western part of Connaught is geographically correct, but is not found in later maps such as those by Ortelius. (By courtesy of the Marquess of Salisbury)