Rotz (Jean) THE MAP AND TEXT OF THE BOKE OF IDROGRAPHY Presented by Jean Rotz to Henry VIII now in

Presented by Jean Rotz to Henry VIII now in the British Library edited by Helen Wallis with a foreword by Vicount Eccles

Facsimile Reprint. Coloured illustration on title page, 96 pages of letterpress, 16 double-page coloured plates, and 11 illustrations in the text, original half brown morocco with matching cloth boards and gilt vignette on upper cover, top edge gilt, titled gilt on the spine, a fine copy.

From the foreword: The reproduction of Jean Rotz's Boke of Idrography, together with the contributions from eminent scholars, will, it is hoped, provide evidence for placing the atlas high among those produced in early Tudor times. The book was dedicated to Henry VIII in 1542. The British people have always liked Henry in spite of his six marriages and his executioner's axe. He looks and was a strong man, and he made England strong by building up the Royal Navy. Rotz, his atlas and his treatise on navigation tell us much of interest about Henry's maritime policy.

The manuscript contains the Boke of Idrography (also known as the Rotz Atlas) by Jean Rotz, hydrographer and navigtor of Dieppe, who probably took part in the expedition from Dieppe to Sumatra under the command of Jean Parmentier in 1529–30, and in 1539 travelled to Guinea and Brazil. The atlas is composed of 12 maps in colours and gold with partial borders, and prefatory texts accompanied by diagrams in colours and gold.

Jean Rotz (b. c.1505, d. in or after 1560), royal hydrographer from 1542, written by him and addressed to Henry VIII, but originally intended for Francis I (b. 1494, d. 1547), king of France (f. 2r); another book presented by him to Henry VIII is the ‘Traicte des differences du compas aymante’ (Royal MS 20 B VII).Henry VIII (b. 1491, d. 1547), king of England and Ireland: dedicated to him; his arms supported by a red dragon and a white greyhound (f. 1v), and a badge of the Tudor rose with a crown and a motto 'Dieu et mon droict' (f. 31v).The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 994' (f. 1), included in the inventory of books in the Upper Library at Westminster of 1542.Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_20_e_ix