The first English atlas map of Poland

A fine 17th century carte-á-figures map of Poland, engraved by Dirck Gryp for John Speed's 'Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World', the first world atlas published in Englnd. It is decorated with with eight costume vignettes down the sides and six city prospects, including Krakow, Gdansk & Bresslau, along the top. This map was first issued in 1627, but this example comes from the 1665 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". Surviving examples of any Rea map are thus rare.