A rare issue of Speed’s map of Dorset

One of the most decorative maps of the county, engraved by Jodocus Hondius for John Speed's atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain', first published 1611-12. Decorations include: strapwork cartouches for the title, scale, the Royal Arms; and vignette galleons and seamonsters in the sea. On the reverse is an English text history of the county. This example comes from the Roger Rea issue of the atlas, 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. A very fine example.