1676 "A NEW AND ACCURAT MAP OF THE WORLD Drawne according to ye Truest Descriptions Latest Discoveries & Best Observations yt have beene Made by English or Strangers"

A very attractive example from the most prestigious English world atlas of the seventeenth century by John Speed (1552-1629). This is Speed’s classic representation of the world surrounded by allegorical border depictions of the four elements. The alignments of the ‘Heavens and Elements’, ‘Figure of the Spheare’ and illustrations of a solar and lunar eclipse appear in the four corners. Two attractive hemispheres of the heavens are in the centre and the whole is finished off with roundel portraits of the first four circumnavigators.

Sold by Tho:Bassett in Fleetstreet and Richard Chiswell in St. Pauls Church Yard, London, 1627-[76]

Measures 54.5 x 42cm with fine recent wash colour in excellent conditions and good margins. 

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 resplendent 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.