Old Map of Berkshire by Joan Blaeu, 1645

Berkshire in Joan Blaeu’s Atlas Novus

Joan Blaeu’s map of Berkshire was first published in Amsterdam in 1645 as part of Le Théâtre du Monde ou Nouvel Atlas, the French edition of Blaeu’s expanding Atlas Novus. Its engraved title, Bercheria Vernacule Barkshire, can be understood as “Berkshire, commonly called Barkshire”, preserving one of the county’s older forms of spelling.

Blaeu belonged to one of the most successful mapmaking families of seventeenth-century Amsterdam. His father, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, established the family printing and publishing business and became known for maps, globes, maritime charts and atlases. Following Willem’s death in 1638, Joan Blaeu took control of the firm and continued enlarging its ambitious multi-volume atlas.

The Berkshire plate formed part of the important group of English and Welsh county maps added to Blaeu’s atlas during the 1640s. Joan Blaeu did not undertake a new ground survey of Berkshire. Like other commercial atlas publishers of the period, his workshop compiled and adapted geographical information from existing cartography. The English county maps drew substantially upon the earlier work of Christopher Saxton, John Speed and other mapmakers whose publications had established the geographical outlines and place names available to seventeenth-century publishers.

The map depicts Berkshire within its historic boundaries, long before the local government changes of the twentieth century. Abingdon and Wantage therefore appear within Berkshire, as they did until the boundary reorganisation of 1974. Reading occupies a central position, while Windsor appears towards the eastern edge of the county. Newbury, Hungerford and numerous smaller settlements can also be found across the engraving.

The River Thames follows much of the county’s northern side, while the River Kennet crosses Berkshire from west to east before joining the Thames at Reading. Rivers, settlements, woodland and areas of higher ground are represented using the conventional symbols of seventeenth-century mapmaking. These should be read as a cartographer’s interpretation of the county rather than as the measured detail of a modern Ordnance Survey map.

One of the pleasures of studying Blaeu’s Berkshire is discovering familiar places under early or variant spellings. Towns and villages are identified through engraved names and settlement symbols, providing an absorbing comparison with the modern county. The map also preserves Berkshire’s older relationship with places now administered as part of Oxfordshire.

The decorative treatment is characteristic of the Blaeu publishing house. A substantial title cartouche occupies the upper centre of the composition, accompanied by heraldic arms. The geographical engraving was printed from a copperplate, while colour could be applied by hand after printing according to the requirements and budget of the original purchaser. Surviving impressions consequently vary in colouring and appearance.

The Berkshire plate continued to be used after its first appearance in 1645 and was included in later editions of Blaeu’s atlases, including the much enlarged Atlas Maior published from 1662. These atlases were expensive objects, admired for their engraving, typography, paper and colouring as well as for the geographical information they contained.

Today, Blaeu’s map offers an attractive record of how Berkshire was represented to a European audience during the seventeenth century. Its combination of recognisable towns, historic boundaries, early place names and elaborate decoration makes it particularly appealing to anyone with a personal, family or historical connection to the county.