Map Classical Geography "The Navigation of Ulysses according to Homer" Christopher Browne c.1725

(Features Africa, Ithaca Troy, Thrace, Cicones, Sicily, Circe, Formies etc.)

Antique copper-plate engraving on laid paper with original hand colouring, for Christopher Browne's folio "The Geography of the Antients sofar as describ'd as is contained in the Greek and Latin Claffics (Classics) in The Maps of the Old World and its several Kingdoms and Provinces..."  printed London 1725, "A Collection long wanted, and now Publish'd for the Use of Schools".

Condition = Excellent. Printed on Laid paper folded in middle preparing it for binding. Plate mark clean but frayed  lower left corner.

Size of Page=10.6 x 7.2in (26.5 x 18cm) / Size of Plate mark = 6.5 x 9.3 in (16.2 x 23.2cm)

Classical Studies:  The learned men of the Classical Era were Christoper Browne's source for these remarkable maps. Indeed the title continues "...Wherein the chief Places mentioned in Homer, Viril, Ovid, Lucan, Eutropius, Cornelius Nespos, Fustin, Quintus Curtius, Salluft, Livy, Caesar, Plutarch, Xenophon, Herodotus ..." being the learned men of the era where literacy was not common.

Homer's Odyssey: Ulysses is the hero of the Odyssey , the Greek epic poem attributed to Homer. Ulysses spends 10 years trying to get back home to Ithaca after the Greeks win the Trojan War. Ulysses comes up with the idea of the Trojan Horse that permits the Greeks to get inside the Trojan city walls, torch the city, and go home. Sailing home, Ulysses and his men encounter various monsters so the adventures continued.

Christopher Browne, map maker/print-seller flourished between 1688-1712, having taken over the print-selling business of Robert Walton on his death. It had been Walton's apprentice in 1683. Browne  may have come from a family of minor gentry. He seems to have done well in business, having two shops at the height of his career from which he retired to live the life of a gentleman. In retirement he grew vines and corresponded with the founder of the British Museum, Sir Hans Sloane.