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| Richard Blome | |
|---|---|
| Name | Richard Blome |
| Birth date | c. 1635 |
| Death date | 1705 |
| Occupation | Cartographer, Engraver, Publisher |
| Notable works | "Bryan's Dictionary of Painters" |
| Nationality | English |
Richard Blome was an English cartographer, engraver, and publisher active in the late 17th century. He produced maps, county atlases, heraldic plates, and illustrated compendia that circulated among subscribers in Restoration and early Stuart England. Blome’s output intersected with contemporaries in print culture and the evolving markets of London, Oxford, and Cambridge.
Blome was born circa 1635 into a milieu shaped by the English Civil War, the Commonwealth of England, and the Restoration of Charles II. He apprenticed and practiced during the same decades that saw figures such as John Evelyn, Samuel Pepys, and Sir Christopher Wren active in London. Early patronage networks connected Blome to publishers and bookshops near St Paul's Cathedral, the Guildhall, and the Temple districts. The political settlement under Restoration policies and the commercial growth of the City of London provided the print market conditions that shaped his formative career.
Blome established himself as an engraver and cartographer producing engraved plates, engraved maps, and subscription atlases. He worked within systems of plate production and sheet-stitching common to publishers such as John Ogilby, William Faithorne, Edward Hatton, and Ralph Agas successors. Blome issued county maps, town plans, and heraldic sheets that were sold from trade hubs including the Royal Exchange and the bookstalls around Paul's Churchyard. His techniques placed him in dialogue with mapmakers like John Speed and Christopher Saxton, while his commercial practices paralleled those of publishers such as Humphrey Mosley and Andrew Bell.
Blome compiled and published a series of illustrated works aimed at a broad readership. His output included county atlases, pictorial surveys, and instructional volumes combining maps with topographical and genealogical material. These publications competed in a market alongside large projects such as the atlases of Willem Blaeu and the gazetteers of John Norden. Blome’s books often featured title-pages, coats of arms, and town views that aligned with the tastes of subscribers who also collected works by George Vertue, Hollar, and Herman Moll. He collaborated with printers and stationers who supplied paper and type common to Fleet Street and the Stationers' Company.
Blome’s engraving style balanced ornamentation with informational elements. He used copperplate engraving techniques shared by contemporaries such as Wenceslaus Hollar, William Captain, and Robert White. His cartographic designs included decorative cartouches, compass roses, and heraldic devices reminiscent of the conventions used by John Speed and the Blaeu family. Blome frequently worked with draughtsmen, engravers, and publishers from networks that included the firms of Thomas Jenner and Richard Cotes. His collaborations extended to printers who had worked on projects by Isaac Newton’s contemporaries, like the presses serving Royal Society members.
Contemporaries and later antiquarians assessed Blome’s work within debates about accuracy, taste, and utility. Critics compared his county maps and engravings to the detailed surveys of John Norden, the decorative atlases of Willem Blaeu, and the more polemical cartography of Gerard Mercator. Collectors in 18th century London and provincial antiquaries—linked to societies in Bath, York, and Norwich—bought and preserved his plates. Later map historians situated Blome within the trajectory from early topographical surveys to the more scientific cartography advanced by Cassini family scholars and by mapmakers such as Herman Moll and John Rocque.
Blome’s personal networks involved booksellers, subscribers, and patrons among the gentry and mercantile classes of London and the English counties. His death in 1705 left engraved plates that circulated in subsequent editions and were reused by later publishers. Blome’s commercial practices and visual vocabulary influenced provincial printmakers and stationers in towns like Bristol, Leeds, and Exeter. Modern archivists and curators at institutions such as the British Library, the Bodleian Library, and the Victoria and Albert Museum study his plates to trace restoration-era print markets, while scholars of cartography connect his work to the broader history represented by collections of Royal Geographical Society and county record offices.
Category:17th-century cartographers Category:English engravers Category:1705 deaths