Speed's Carte à Figure of Italy
SKU: 9731
Title:
Speed's Carte à Figure of Italy
Date of publication:
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Mapmaker:
This 'carte à figure' map of Italy includes eight costume vignettes and six city views around the edges, with the coats of arms of Corsica and Sardinia.
John Speed (1552-1629) is unquestionably the most significant English map-maker of the seventeenth-century. The first edition of Speed's ‘Theatre’ was published in 1612. It was the first atlas of the British Isles, and the first attempt made by an Englishman to match the achievements of the great continental publishing houses - although much of the engraving of the copper plates was performed in Amsterdam by Jodocus Hondius. Read more
Our map of Italy appeared in Speed’s ‘Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World’, the first world atlas attributed to an Englishman, first published in 1627; again, many of the plates were engraved in Amsterdam, mostly by Abraham Goos.
Condition & Materials
Copper engraving, printed area 38.5 x 51.5 cm, modern hand-colour, closed tear in the sea (beside the vignette of a naval engagement), trivial spotting, English text to verso. Read less