1676 - "MIDLE-SEX described WITH THE MOST FAMOUS Cities of LONDON and WESTMINSTER".

A highly-decorative map of Middlesex, engraved by Jodocus Hondius and published in John Speed's important atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain. It was derived from an unpublished map by John Norden and has inset town plans of London and Westminster (also after surveys by Norden, published 1593) and views of St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

Norden was the first surveyor to plan a series of county histories with maps; however he failed to attract sufficient backing for his enterprise and never completed it, leaving Christopher Saxton to produce the first English county atlas in 1579. However, Speed considered Norden's surveying superior to Saxton's and preferred to use Norden as a source where possible. As Saxton did not publish a map of Middlesex (only a map of south east England), the only earlier maps of the county were from smaller-format editions of Camden's 'Britannia' This is the edition published by Thomas Bassett & Richard Chiswell.

Condition is generally very fine with central fold as issued with English text on verso.

Size 53cm x 42cm including the margins & with later hand colour.

John Speed (1552-1629) is the most famous of all English cartographers primarily as a result of The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, the first Atlas of the British Isles. The maps from this Atlas are the best known and most sought-after of all county maps. The maps were derived mainly from earlier prototypes of Christopher Saxon and Robert Norden but with notable improvements include parish "Hundreds" and county boundaries, town plans and embellishments such as the coats of arms of local Earls, Dukes and the Royal Household.