Copper engraving from Thomas Bankes’s “New System of Geography” published by Royal Authority c.1775
Thomas Bankes, Edward Warren Blake, and Alexander Cook’s A New Royal Authentic and Complete System of Universal Geography (hereafter Thomas Bankes’s). A massive folio volume of 990 double-columned pages, this was a popular work, running to six editions in the years from 1775 to 1797
Thomas Bankes: 18th century collector of maps and engravings and vicar of Dixton, Monmouthshire, whose New and Authentic System of Universal Geography (London, C. Cooke, ca. 1788-90) compiled views from various countries, including some detailing the voyages of Captain James Cook.
Geographers of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries recognized two great divisions of their discipline. These were ‘General’ or ‘Universal’ geography, which dealt with ‘the whole Earth in general, and explain[ed] its properties without regard to particular countries’.
Engraved for BANKES’s New System of GEOGRAPHY – c.1775 – ANCIENT ENGLISH DRESSES.
1 a Nobleman in 1557…2 a Merchant of Londonin 1588…3 a Gentleman in 1590.
Engraved for BANKES’s New System of GEOGRAPHY – c.1775 – ANCIENT ENGLISH DRESSES.
1 a Nobleman in Robes in 1490…2 a Nobleman in 1550…3 a Gentleman in 1559..
A digitized copy of one volume can be found here in the Internet Archive, scanned from a microfilm.
Fascinating title page that I will attempt to reproduce in text…
antiqueprints 