BRITANNIA

William Camden's "Britannia" (1610) was the first great text describing the British nation, its antiquities and culture.

The work by Camden (1551-1623), often dubbed as the "father" of British history, deploys sophisticated historical material in the fashion of a geographical chorography. Organized by a set of country descriptions arranged according to the tribes of the Saxon Heptarchy, the work provided the benchmark by which later chorographers defined themselves.Originally published in Latin in 1586, this reprinting of Camden's epic geographical work is of the rare, revised, amended and enlarged English translation by the "translator general" Philimon Holland.

Lavishly illustrated and revised six times over 20 years, Britannia is a product of European humanism, and remains an indispensable work on history, geography and national identity from the age of Elizabeth to the end of the Georgian era.

Of great relevance to historians, geographers and critics "Britannia" was, is and remains an intricate fusion of geography and history.