A scarce edition of John Speed’s map of Oxfordshire

An important map of Oxfordshire, engraved by Jodocus Hondius for Speed's county atlas 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain', first published 1611-12. It is also one of the most decorative maps of the county, with two columns of college arms, a plan of the city of Oxford and a vignette of two scholars examining a globe. On the reverse is an English-text description of the county and a gazetteer. 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.