Leybourn, William
The Compleat Surveyor
Estimate: £400 - £600
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
containing the Whole Art of Surveying of Land … The Second Edition, with many Additions. London: by R. and W. Leybourn, for G. Sawbridge, 1657. Folio, [12] 92, 177-308 pp., modern half calf, engraved portrait frontispiece, title-page printed in red and black, woodcut headpieces and initials, diagrams throughout text, early ink annotations to initial and terminal blanks, frontispiece spotted, with contemporary hand-colouring and an ink-sketch imitating the portrait to top margin, title-page browned and slightly marked, and with contemporary inked monogram ‘D E’ repeated to head and old pen-trials to foot, early ownership inscription of one John Elom to end of dedication, two diagrams at rear with contemporary colouring
Footnote
Second edition under this title, and the third edition overall: the work originally appeared in 1650 as Planometria, under the pseudonym Oliver Wallinby, and was published as The Compleat Surveyor in 1653. 'The success of the work led to the publication of four editions during Leybourn's lifetime; a fifth appeared in 1722 … In October 1666 he was appointed one of the six surveyors to measure the damage caused by the great fire of London. Leybourn's practice as a land surveyor continued and he mapped estates in London and many other English counties for several clients' (ODNB).