1627 - " Northamptonshire  "

A fine example of this rare George Humble edition map by John Speed. Two inset plans of Northampton and Peterborow (Peterborough), coats of arms of the important local families & compass rose.
Measures 515 x 400mm with central fold as issued.

Condition is good with English text on verso. There are some very minor surface paper splits down the central fold.
John Speed (1552-1629) was born in Cheshire and from his youth pursued his father's profession of tailoring. He later moved to London to continue this trade, though Speed's real passions lay elsewhere, namely in the fields of antiquity and cartography. He joined the Society of Antiquaries where his enthusiasm soon attracted the attention of notables such as William Camden and Sir Fulke Greville. In 1596, Greville provided Speed with a full time allowance to write a 'Historie of Great Britaine'. It was during this project that Speed decided to add a cartographic supplement to the work and it was from this that his famous atlas 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine' was born.

When published in 1611/12, his atlas was an immediate success, outdoing the one established by Christopher Saxon in 1579. There were a number of reasons for this; Speed's atlas showed each county separately with its hundreds, was respendent with heraldic shields but most significantly had one or two town plans. Displayed from a bird's eye view perspective, many of the towns were surveyed by Speed himself using a distinct "scale of paces' and are the earliest known plans of these places. The aesthetic beauty of the maps were also down to the Dutch engraver, Jodocus Hondius, whose fine calligraphy and decorative strapwork are a feature throughout.