The English edition of the earliest available printed map of London

The fourth and final state of the earliest printed map of London to survive, and the only English edition, included in Edward Hatton's 'A New View of London; or an ample account of that City'. Originally published in 1572 for the 'Civitates Orbis Terrarum', the first series of printed town plans, the title had been 'Londinum Feracissimi Angliae Regni Metropolis', in a title cartouche top centre. When Jansson re-issued the plate in 1657 he had a new title 'Londinium Vulgo London' engraved in a new cartouche over the four figures in Elizabethan dress bottom centre. The old cartouche has been erased but no new information has been added in its place, so the roads just end in empty fields. The title estimates the date of the survey to be c.1600, but the likely date would be half-a-century earlier: in the centre of London is the old St. Paul's Cathedral, showing its spire, which was was hit by lighting and destroyed in 1561, and was not replaced before the Great Fire of London destroyed the building in 1666.