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2025 marks 350 years since the publication of a novel volume of maps. Its creator, John Ogilby (1600-1676), was a man of many talents who reinvented himself throughout his eventful life.
The presentation grows out of the coronation of Charles II, an event brought about by the collapse of enthusiasm for democratic ideals and the idea of a commonwealth rooted in an egalitarian morality. Legality and morality were replaced as the basis of authority and power by showmanship, and it was Ogilby’s job to put on the show.
Alan Ereira, author of ‘The nine lives of John Ogilby: Britain’s master map maker and his secrets’, demonstrates how Ogilby acquired the necessary skill set, starting out as a dancer and then becoming an impresario before turning to his final great accomplishment of publishing: ‘Britannia’ – a book of route maps. Our smart phone way-finding of the twenty-first century bears a striking resemblance to these linear maps.
The presentation follows the curious route of Ogilby’s life, starting with how Ogilby’s trajectory is linked to the disintegration of the ancient cosmology and political philosophy on which that was based. Ogilby, like much of Europe, was caught up in the maelstrom of war, revolution, plague and fire.
In the last years of his life, Ogilby was commissioned by the King to provide a road-map for the whole country. But the roads chosen are not necessarily the most obvious or commercially useful. Why were these routes chosen? How do the political undercurrents of the seventeenth century depiction of the realm link to our digital world of information selection and presentation?
This is Alan’s presentation, specially recorded by him for the Phil & Lit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-fmCDKxDWI
Alan Ereira is a Professor of Practice at the University of Wales, Trinity St. David, and the Chair of the Tairona Heritage Trust, which magnifies the voice of the Kogi people of Colombia. He has spent many years as a producer of history documentaries and educational broadcasts, mostly for BBC radio and television. His broadcasting awards include the bi-annual Japan Prize for ‘The Battle of the Somme’ and the Royal Television Society award for best documentary series {‘Armada’). He has published numerous articles and six books, mostly on British history, and has given the Green Book Award for “The Heart of the World”, his book on the experience of first engaging with the Kogi, with whom he has made two feature-length documentaries.
