Speed's Carte à Figure of Poland
SKU: 9732
Title:
Speed's Carte à Figure of Poland
Date of publication:
Place of publication:
Colour:
Mapmaker:
This 'carte à figure' map of Poland includes eight costume vignettes and six city views around the edges, and also feature the coats of arms of Poland and Silesia; the medallion portrait in the upper border appears to be unidentified.
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 Poland 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 41 x 52 cm, modern hand-colour, upper margin cut close, trimmed to neatline and extended top left, English text to verso. Read less