From the Preface by Tetsuya Iseki:
A Survey of London was originally published by John Stow (c.
1525 1605) in 1598. Stow was a chronicler and antiquary who edited
literary works and archaeological texts (his first publication was
Chaucer s Canterbury Tales, newly edited in 1561). In 1603 Stow
published a new edition with corrections and additions, and it
achieved immediate popular success. Even after his death, the work
was reprinted in 1618 (Anthony Munday s new edition), and again in
1633, but then disappeared from print until the end of the century.
(The 1603 edition which was re-edited by C. L. Kingsford was issued
by Oxford University Press in 1908, and later reprinted as the
facsimile edition in 2000.)
After the Great Fire of 1666, the state of London depicted and
recorded in Stow s Survey was greatly transformed. In 1694 Richard
Blome (who published a new edition of William Camden s Britannia)
made an attempt to publish his new edition of Stow s Survey with
maps and many additions to describe the rebuilding of London after
the Fire, but this was not successful. In 1702 John Strype (1643
1737), who had already achieved fame as an editor of historical and
biographical documents, started editing Blome s abortive work and
created a new edition to answer the need for a current version of
Stow s Survey. Strype was said to have completed his edition (in
two folio volumes) by November 1707, while a similar, rival book, A
New View of London by Edward Hatton, was going to be published the
following year. The booksellers gave up Strype s Survey because
Hatton s publication was a smaller and cheaper edition. As it
turned out, however, Hatton s View of London could not satisfy the
demand for a more scholarly updated edition of Stow s Survey, and
Strype s project was revived in 1716 and finally published in
December 1720.
Strype s Survey of London is basically an enlarged edition of
Stow s Survey, but the main body of the text and the maps are
essentially taken from Blome s 1694 edition. A mere reading of
Strype s Survey will reinforce the claim that the work is full of
information about the late Stuart capital: the economics, politics,
religion, architecture, and moral life of his day. Maps and plates
of Strype s Survey retain vivid visual details and, more than any
other previous attempts, successfully remap the prosperous state of
London. Pre-Fire maps were pictorial bird s-eye views, in which
buildings and landmarks are privileged over topographical accuracy,
but alleys and yards are often obscured. The two-dimensional maps
were published by John Ogilby and William Morgan after the fire in
1677. A large number of illustrations in Strype s new edition show
the details of the capital s parishes and wards, including
important historical buildings within and without the City both in
two dimensions and bird s-eye views.
Strype s Survey of London was priced at six guineas, and some
700 copies were published. Now the original is rarely found and the
condition of the copies in the British Library or the ones in some
other big libraries are not sound enough for reprint use. The
present reprint is from my personal unspoiled copy of the 1720
edition. All texts and visual images derive from this copy. The
work was originally published in two volumes: Volume 1 contains
Books 1 3 and Volume 2 contains Books 4 6, plus appendices. This
reprinted edition consists of three volumes: Volume 1 (Books 1, 2),
Volume 2 (Books 3, 4), and Volume 3 (Books 5, 6). The texts are in
the original fount and all illustrations and maps are inserted as
foldouts.
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