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First Edition.
A detailed and decorative map of Hungary, showing two sets of four costumed figures on each side of the map and views of Presburch, Ofen (Buda), Comorra, and Raab. The map itself is highly detailed and engraved in Speed's clean style, with pictorial elements neatly presented.
The four figures at the sides of the map represent various classes in society, showing the clothes that they would have been required to wear as part of societal norms. They progress downwards from senators to gentlefolk to citizens (of cities) and countryfolk. Each has a distinct form of traditional dress.
The text on the verso describes Hungary as known to the English at the beginning of the 17th century. Speed produced the first English atlas of the world and his maps are prized for their decorative quality.
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.
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