Speed, John

John Speed (1551 or 1552-1629) was a chronologer, historian and England's best-known Stuart period cartographer, whose highly decorative maps helped to define early modern concepts of British national identity. He drew upon and improved the earlier shire maps of Christopher Saxton, John Norden and others, being the first to incorporate the hundred-boundaries into them, and he was the surveyor and originator of many of the town or city plans inset within them. He is best known today for his atlas, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (published 1611, 1616, 1623), which included a set of county maps of England and Wales, as well as maps of Ireland and a general map of Scotland. This was followed in 1627 by A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World, the first world atlas produced by an Englishman; the North American maps contained therein are particularly highly prized today.

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Speed, John

Suffolke described. Suffolk county map by John Speed. George Humble edition 1611

Darbieshire. Derbyshire county map by John Speed. Bassett/Chiswell edition 1676

Countie of Lyncolne. Lincolnshire county map by Speed. Bassett/Chiswell ed. 1676

Denbighshire county map by John Speed. Sudbury & Humble edition c1627 old

Flintshire county map by John Speed. Sudbury & George Humble edition c1627

Bohemia Newly described by John Speed… 1626. Bassett/Chiswell edition 1676 map

Counti of Warwick. Shire/county map by John Speed. Bassett/Chiswell edition 1676

Stafford Countie. Shire/county map by John Speed. Bassett/Chiswell edition 1676

Yorkeshyre. Yorkshire West Riding county map by John Speed. Overton edition 1710

Merioneth Shire Described county map by John Speed. George Humble edition 1627

Montgomeryshire county map by John Speed. Bassett & Chiswell edition 1676

Countie of Radnor. Shire/county map by John Speed. Bassett/Chiswell edition 1676

Rutlandshire county map by John Speed. Roger Rae edition 1662 old antique

Leicestershire county map by John Speed. Henry Overton edition 1713 old

Denbighshire county map by John Speed. Bassett & Chiswell edition 1676 old

Darbieshire. Derbyshire county map by John Speed. Bassett/Chiswell edition 1676

Shropshyre. Shropshire county map by John Speed. Bassett & Chiswell edition 1676

Buckinghamshire county map by John Speed. Bassett & Chiswell edition 1676

HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 'Huntingdon both Shire & Shire Town…' by JOHN SPEED 1738 map

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