Speed's landmark map of America

SPEED, John.

America with those known parts in that unknowne worlde, both people and manner of buildings Discribed and inlarged by J.S. 1626.
London, Roger Rea and Son. Coloured. 405 x 525mm.

Original margins, minor restoration.

An important map of America, the first atlas map to show California is an island. It was engraved by Abraham Goos for Speed's 'Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World', the first English atlas of the world, first published 1627. Above California is the outline of another large, unnamed island; nothing is shown of the Great Lakes; and Raleigh's 'Parime Lacus' and 'Manoa' appear in South America. An inset shows Greenland, Iceland and the mythical islands of Friesland & Buss.
Along the top of the map are prospects of eight cities, including Havana, Cartagena, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. Down the sides are ten costume vignettes of native Americans, including the kings of New England & Florida, a Virginian and Greenlander.
This example comes from the Roger Rea issue, which was beset with disaster: according to an advert for the 1676 Bassett & Chiswell edition, ''the greatest part of an Impression, then newly Printed, [was] destroyed by the late dreadful Fire, 1666". Surviving examples of any Rea map are thus rare. For his issue Rea amended the plate, adding English place names including Boston, 'Long Ile', 'Mary Land' and Carolina.

BURDEN: North America, 217.
Stock ID : 23980