English: "The 'Copperplate Map', c1559. These copper printing plates were used to produce a very detailed map of London - the earliest view of the city known. No printed version of the map has survived and ony three plates, from an original set of 15, have been discovered. The two shown here, cover the eastern side of the City, from Shoreditch in the north to London Bridge in the south. The third plate (in Dessau Art Gallery, Germany) shows the area around St Paul's Cathedral. It is not known who commissioned the map but the plates were probably engraved in the Netherlands between 1553 and 1559. Eventually the worn plates were sold to artists so that the reverse sides could be used for oil paintings. These plates depict the Tower of Babel and the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin." In the Museum of London.