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Description

Attractive full color example of Speed's map of Penbrokeshire, from an early edition of Speed's Theatre of Great Britain.

Includes large inset plan of Penbroke and St. Davids, along with multiple coats of arms.

Condition Description
Engraving on 17th-century laid paper. Original hand-coloring. Very minor repaired tear and small loss toward bottom of centerfold, as shown.
John Speed Biography

John Speed (1551 or '52 - 28 July 1629) was the best known English mapmaker of the Stuart period. Speed came to mapmaking late in life, producing his first maps in the 1590s and entering the trade in earnest when he was almost 60 years old.

John Speed's fame, which continues to this day, lies with two atlases, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (first published 1612), and the Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World (1627). While The Theatre ... started as solely a county atlas, it grew into an impressive world atlas with the inclusion of the Prospect in 1627. The plates for the atlas passed through many hands in the 17th century, and the book finally reached its apotheosis in 1676 when it was published by Thomas Bassett and Richard Chiswell, with a number of important maps added for the first time.