Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, c. 1572 - detail of descriptive panel

Description:A printer describes his map of Shakespeare's London.

The French printer of this map of London used a corner to describe the city and the River Thames. Although it is in Latin this description would have been easily understood by educated Elizabethans, including those like Shakespeare, who had attended a grammar school.

Translation: This is the city of London, capital of the whole kingdom of England, sited by the river Thames. Some think it was founded by Caesar, others by the Trinobantes, celebrated for its noble trade of many nations, decorated with houses, adorned with temples, noble arches, men of all the arts and teachings, of noble breeding. In short, an abundance of all things and resources of wonderful distinction. The Thames itself brings in the wealth of the whole world to the town, in laden ships, up a river navigable for sixty miles by a deep channel.

Full title: Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg, Londinium, [from Civitates orbis terrarum. Coloniae Agrippinae, 1572 - c.1580](hand-coloured)