This paper examines Francis Blomefield’s engraved Plan of the City of Norwich produced for his An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk.2 Although Blomefield’s contribution to our understanding of the history of Norfolk has been the subject of many studies, the illustrations that accompanied his texts have received comparatively little attention. The first part of this paper aims to explore some of the traditions of representing the city and county that informed the Plan and posits that it was unique in its author’s incorporation of a remarkable variety of seals covering a wide time span. The second part presents an analysis of the seals that draws on our historical knowledge of the city, as well as the extensive antiquarian cast collections of seals held in Norwich. It is argued that the decision to include such a large number of seals on the Plan was based on a desire to represent not only local authority (which could also be achieved through the city arms or civic regalia) but the machinery and traditions of governance, and the charitable acts, functions and connections of individuals and institutions. Each seal signified its owner, whose actions in the past contributed to Blomefield’s view of the city’s rich social fabric. The use of seals rather than other images or texts to make such a statement may have been a deliberate play on the function of the seal as a device of authentication; thus conferring a sense of validity on Blomefield’s topography and giving veracity to his history.
Francis Blomefield’s Plan of the City of Norwich (590 × 667 mm; Fig. 13.1) came from a tradition, well-established from the sixteenth century, of rendering the urban fabric of cities and their immediate environs.3 From the seventeenth century, copper plate engraving facilitated the production of very detailed views of England’s cities. These sometimes included representations of major buildings found in those cities; an example is James Corbridge’s plan of Norwich (1727), which is surrounded by compartments framing architectural views.4 A different trajectory had been started four years earlier by Thomas Kirkpatrick (brother of the antiquary John Kirkpatrick), who produced a prospect view of the city from the north-east. It shows the cathedral, castle and the Shirehouse. It was printed in 1723 on two sheets, and has an upper and lower section.5 The lower contains three sub-sections: on the left are coins minted in Norwich; at the right is a plan view of the city inset; and in the centre is an explanation of the prospect and the plan.6 The depiction of coins also featured on Hermann Moll’s map of Norfolk (1724). The association of antiquities with the city or the county made a very different statement about that location. Cartographers of this period chose to include not just the built environment (i.e. the historic environment that one could still see) but unseen, portable (and very possibly recent) finds that were related to earlier societies that occupied that same geographical space. This trend was not limited to coinage.