Map ownership in sixteenth‐century Cambridge: The evidence of probate inventories

Abstract

Abstract Early probate inventories, an under‐used source in the history of cartography, can provide an insight into sixteenth‐century map ownership. Those from the Vice‐Chancellor's Court at Cambridge, for example, are sufficiently detailed in many cases to show how the university towns of England must have comprised a distinctive map market, how there were different categories of map owners within the university ambit, what maps were bought, and for what purpose. A number of the maps and atlases can be identified and the existence of lost maps confirmed.