Editing William Camden (section)

==''Britannia''==
[[File:Britannia by William Camden Title page.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Hand-coloured frontispiece and title page of the 1607 edition of ''Britannia'']]
In 1577, with the encouragement of [[Abraham Ortelius]], Camden began his great work ''Britannia'', a topographical and historical survey of all of Great Britain and Ireland. His stated intention was to "restore antiquity to Britaine, and Britain to his antiquity".<ref>{{cite book |first=William |last=Camden |translator-first=Philemon |translator-last=Holland |translator-link=Philemon Holland |title=Britain, or a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Ilands adjoyning, out of the depth of Antiquitie |chapter=The Author to the Reader |place=London |year=1610 |url=http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/fronteng.html }}</ref> The first edition, written in [[Latin]], was published in 1586. It proved very popular, and ran through five further Latin editions, of 1587, 1590, 1594, 1600 and 1607, each greatly enlarged from its predecessor in both textual content and illustrations.<ref>Levy 1964.</ref><ref name="Piggott">Piggott 1976.</ref> The 1607 edition included for the first time a full set of English county maps, based on the surveys of [[Christopher Saxton]] and [[John Norden]], and engraved by William Kip and [[William Hole (engraver)|William Hole]] (who also engraved the fine frontispiece). The first [[English language|English-language]] edition, translated by [[Philemon Holland]], appeared in 1610, again with some additional content supplied by Camden.<ref>Harris 2015.</ref>

''Britannia'' is a county-by-county description of Great Britain and Ireland. It is a work of [[chorography]]: a study that relates landscape, geography, antiquarianism, and history. Rather than write a history, Camden wanted to describe in detail the Great Britain of the present, and to show how the traces of the past could be discerned in the existing landscape. By this method, he produced the first coherent picture of [[Roman Britain]].

He continued to collect materials and to revise and expand ''Britannia'' throughout his life. He drew on the published and unpublished work of [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]] and [[William Lambarde]], among others, and received the assistance of a large network of correspondents with similar interests. He also travelled throughout Great Britain to view documents, sites, and artefacts for himself: he is known to have visited East Anglia in 1578, Yorkshire and Lancashire in 1582, Devon in 1589, Wales in 1590, Salisbury, Wells and Oxford in 1596, and Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall in 1599.<ref>Dates of excursions based on DeMolen 1984, p. 328; the date of the northern trip corrected from 1600 to 1599 based on Hepple 1999.</ref> His fieldwork and firsthand research set new standards for the time. He even learned [[Welsh language|Welsh]] and [[Old English]] for the task: his tutor in Old English was [[Laurence Nowell]].

[[File:Funeral procession of Elizabeth I William Camden Clarenceux 1603.jpg |thumb|left|Camden as [[Clarenceux King of Arms]] in the funeral procession of [[Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth I]], 1603]]
In 1593 Camden became headmaster of [[Westminster School]]. He held the post for four years, but left when he was appointed [[Clarenceux King of Arms]]. By this time, largely because of the ''Britannia''{{'}}s reputation, he was a well-known and revered figure, and the appointment was meant to free him from the labour of teaching and to facilitate his research. The [[College of Arms]] at that time was not only a centre of [[genealogical]] and [[heraldry|heraldic]] study, but also a centre of antiquarian study. The appointment, however, roused the jealousy of [[Ralph Brooke]], [[York Herald]], who, in retaliation, published an attack on ''Britannia'', charging Camden with inaccuracy and plagiarism. Camden successfully defended himself against the charges in subsequent editions of the work.

''Britannia'' was recognised as an important work of Renaissance scholarship, not only in England, but across the European "[[Republic of Letters]]". Camden considered having the 1586 ''Britannia'' printed in the [[Low Countries]], and although that did not happen, the third edition of 1590, in addition to its London printing, was also published the same year in [[Frankfurt]], and reprinted there in 1616. In 1612 parts were condemned by the [[Spanish Inquisition]]. An abridgement was published in Amsterdam in 1617 and reprinted in 1639; and versions of the text were also included in [[Joan Blaeu]]'s ''Theatrum Orbis Terrarum'' (published in Amsterdam in 1645) and in [[Jan Janssonius]]'s ''Novus Atlas'' (again published in Amsterdam, in 1646).<ref>Harris 2015, pp. 281–3.</ref>