A rare issue of Speed’s map of Norfolk

One of the most decorative maps of the county, engraved by Jodocus Hondius in 1610 for John Speed's county atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain', first published in 1611-12. The decorations include a book for the title, a strapwork cartouche for the scale, the Royal Arms, seven crests of local nobility, a plan of Norwich and a stylised battle scene. On the reverse is an English-text letterpress description 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.