A scarce issue of John Speed’s map of Sussex

A very famous map, engraved by Jodocus Hondius in 1610 and first published the following year, in Speed's atlas 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain'. The decorations include an inset plan of Chichester, James I's Royal Arms, a strapwork panel of the arms of local nobles and a title cartouche of an open book. As well as the usual vignettes of galleons and sea-monsters, there is a Civil War battle (probably a skirmish at Haywards Heath) and a representation of William the Conqueror's fleet arriving at Pevensey. On the reverse is an English-text history of the county and 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.