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Description

Nice example of John Speed's small format version of John Ogilby's famous Lords Proprietors' Map of Carolina, based upon Charles II grant to 8 of his supporters of all the lands between Virginia & Florida (overlooking the fact he did not own the land).

Speed's map is drawn from the account of John Lederer, a young German explorer who had crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains in hopes of seeing the Pacific Ocean. Lederer introduced numerous geographical myths, including a description of Piedmont, Northe Carolina as being under water for for part of the year, a massive interior lake and an arid region he named the Arenosa Desert. Speed's map was the first to give extensive credit to Lederer and contributed to the survival of these myths for nearly 100 years.

The map is one of the earliest maps to depict Charleston. Burden notes that the map mislocates Charleston (Charles T) on the north bank of the Ashley River. By contrast, Ogilby's map did not name Charleston and Speed's larger format map of Carolina correctly places Charleston on the south bank of the Ashley River. The most significant difference between the larger edition of the map and this edition is the larger map's ommission of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers and the smaller map's inclusion of the Eruco River, which is not shown on the larger format map. Burden notes that this map was likely drawn directly from Ogilby's edition of the Lord Proprietor's map and therefore precedes Speed's larger format version of the map.

While the large Speed map of Carolina appears on the market with some frequency, this miniature edition of the map has become quite scarce, with the last example appearing at auction being Old World Auctions: Sale 120 - July 18, 2007, Lot 220 ($1,008). This is only the second example of the map we have offered in 20 years.

Reference
Burden 460.
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.