{"product_id":"john-speed-gloucestershire-map-first-edition-1610","title":"John Speed Map of Gloucestershire, First Edition 1611\/12—Hand-Coloured Copper Engraving with Plans of Gloucester \u0026 Bristol, Framed","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eSPEED, John\u003c\/b\u003e (1551\/52–1629)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eGlocestershire contrived into thirty three sevarall hundreds \u0026amp; those againe into foure principall divisions. The Citie of Glocester \u0026amp; Bristow described with the armes of such noble men as have bene dignified with ye titles of Earles \u0026amp; Dukes thereof.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e[London]: Imprinted by William Hall and John Beale, sold by John Sudbury and George Humble at Pope’s Head Alley, [1611\/12].\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eFIRST EDITION\u003c\/b\u003e (1611\/12). Single-sheet copper-plate engraving by Jodocus Hondius of Amsterdam, with hand-applied colour, and English letterpress text on verso (“Glocester-Shire,” Book 1, Chap. XXIV, fols. 47–48), opening with the large historiated initial G associated with the Hall \u0026amp; Beale printing of the first edition. From the first English atlas of the British Isles, John Speed’s \u003ci\u003eThe Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat: \u003c\/b\u003eApproximately 15 × 20 inches (380 × 510 mm) plate area, presented in a glazed black-painted wood frame allowing both recto (map) and verso (printed text) to be viewed. Frame approximately [TO MEASURE] inches overall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition: \u003c\/b\u003eGood. Hand-colour bright and well-preserved across the map face, with strong impressions of the engraved lines; light age toning to the sheet; minor foxing and small marginal stains consistent with age. Verso letterpress crisp and fully legible, with the decorated foliated initial G and chapter heading clearly preserved; centre fold visible as published. Frame with light surface wear at extremities; no apparent restoration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReferences: \u003c\/b\u003eSkelton, \u003ci\u003eCounty Atlases of the British Isles, 1579–1850\u003c\/i\u003e. Chubb, \u003ci\u003eThe Printed Maps in the Atlases of Great Britain and Ireland\u003c\/i\u003e. Worms \u0026amp; Baynton-Williams, \u003ci\u003eBritish Map Engravers\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003eA handsome example of John Speed’s celebrated map of Gloucestershire from the first edition of \u003ci\u003eThe Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine\u003c\/i\u003e (1611\/12)—the first English atlas of the British Isles and the most ambitious cartographic project of Jacobean England. Speed, a Cheshire tailor turned historian and antiquarian, compiled his county maps from the earlier surveys of Christopher Saxton and John Norden, but added two innovations of lasting importance: the division of each county into its administrative \u003ci\u003ehundreds\u003c\/i\u003e, and decorative inset town plans, many of which are the earliest surviving printed views of those places.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003eThe Gloucestershire sheet is among the most decoratively rich in the atlas. The upper-left corner carries Speed’s plan of Gloucester with a 26-key index of churches, gates, and streets, and an adjacent panel describing the city’s government and parish divisions. The lower-right corner carries an inset of Bristol (here “Bristow”) with its own keyed legend and historical text. The upper-right is dominated by the royal arms of King James I beneath the motto \u003ci\u003eDieu et Mon Droit\u003c\/i\u003e, flanked by a panel of fourteen heraldic shields representing the noble families who held the titles of Earl and Duke of Gloucester. Two battle vignettes in the lower left commemorate medieval engagements at Tewkesbury and the conflicts between Edward IV and Queen Margaret. The map proper is densely populated with towns, villages, hills in pictorial relief, rivers, forests, and the boundaries of the county’s thirty-three administrative hundreds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003eSpeed’s town plans are particularly significant: those bearing his “Scale of Pases” were claimed as his own surveys “by mine owne travails,” and the Gloucester plan included here is among the earliest surviving printed plans of the city. The verso preserves the original English letterpress text adapted from Camden’s \u003ci\u003eBritannia\u003c\/i\u003e, describing Gloucestershire’s bounds, soils, rivers, market towns, commodities, and history, alongside a complete tabular list of the county’s hundreds and parishes, opening with the large historiated initial G characteristic of the first-edition printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 6.0pt;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNote on attribution and dating: \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eFour converging features place this example among the impressions of the original 1611\/12 first edition. First, the imprint at the foot of the title cartouche reads “John Sudbury and George Humble” at Pope’s Head Alley—the original publishing partnership, active until c. 1618, after which George Humble continued alone, the plates later passing to William Humble, Roger Rea, and finally Bassett \u0026amp; Chiswell (1676). Second, the verso text is in English, ruling out the 1616 Latin edition (Theatrum Imperii Magnae Britanniae), which was produced for the Continental market. Third, the large historiated initial G that opens the verso text corresponds to the decorated capital stock used by the original printers William Hall and John Beale, who jointly imprinted the 1611\/12 first edition (Hall sold his interest to Beale c. 1612, and the imprint thereafter reads Beale alone). Fourth, the heraldic panel of the Earls and Dukes of Gloucester at upper right contains two shields that remain blank—the seats they would have represented had not yet been established at the time this impression was struck.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Candlewood Trading Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41129132687460,"sku":"AFEJSMG1610","price":600.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0567\/2550\/4100\/products\/PhotoRoom-20221230_164422_2.png?v=1672436785","url":"https:\/\/candlewoodtrading.com\/products\/john-speed-gloucestershire-map-first-edition-1610","provider":"Candlewood Trading Company","version":"1.0","type":"link"}