Pitt was from Cornwall, where he was baptized at St. Teath in 1639. He was educated locally but moved to London when apprenticed to bookseller Robert Littlebury. At the end of his apprenticeship, in 1661, he was made free of the Haberdasher’s Company. His first books to be published with his own imprint appeared in 1667.
Pitt specialized in learned publications and imported scholarly works from continental Europe. He also published the writings of members of the newly formed Royal Society, including Robert Boyle, as well as high-ranking clergymen. In 1678, Pitt was the first bookseller to offer his wares via an auction.
Thanks in part to his ties to the Royal Society, Pitt announced in 1678 that he would publish a massive twelve-volume atlas of the world. The plates were to be based on Dutch maps, with a text written by Bishop William Nicholson and Richard Peers. However, only four volumes ever appeared.
Pitt, who was also managing several properties in Westminster and had expanded in a partnership to Oxford, was spread too thin. The cost of each volume of the atlas alone Pitt estimated at £1,000. One by one, his ventures turned foul, landing him in debtors’ prison for seven years. He died in London, but not in prison, in 1697.
Remarkable Early English Map of the North Polar Regions Fine example of Moses Pitt's original map of the North Pole and surrounding lands. Moses Pitt initially set out to produce an expanded edition of Jansson's Atlas Maior with his partner Jacob Van...
Remarkable Early English Map of the North Polar Regions Fine example of Moses Pitt's original map of the North Pole and surrounding lands. Moses Pitt initially set out to produce an expanded edition of Jansson's Atlas Maior with his partner Jacob Van...
Detailed map of the region centered on Erfurt. Also includes Gotha, Weimar, Schwartzburg, Halle, Jena, Mulhausen, etc.
Fine example of the Moses Pitt re-issue of Blaeu's map of Russia, from Blaeu's Atlas Maior.
Finely colored example of Moses Pitt's map of Ukraine, divided into provinces, which appeared in a composite atlas by Abraham Wolfgang. Pitt's map, first issued by Jan Jansson in about 1657, is one of the earliest maps to include the name Ukraine in...
Decorative regional map of central Sweden, published by Moses Pitt. The map is richly decorated with a large figurative cartouche.
Detailed map of the Island of Funen and surrounding islands, from the scarce Mose Pitt Atlas.
