A scarce issue of Speed’s map of Hertfordshire

One of the first printed maps of Hertfordshire, engraved by Jodocus Hondius in 1610 and published in John Speed's county atlas, 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain'. It is decorated with town plans of Hertford and St. Albans, strapwork cartouches around the title and insets, armorials and a stylised battle scene. This example comes from the Roger Rea issue, 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". Unusually, this example has no text on the reverse, signifying that it was not issued in the atlas but as a separate map. Surviving examples of any Rea map are rare.