A scarce edition of John Speed's map of Oxfordshire

SPEED, John.

Oxfordshire described with ye Citie and the Armes of the Colledges of ye famous University. Aº 1605.
London: Roger Rea and Son, 1665. Coloured. 390 x 530mm.

Narrow margin bottom right.

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.


Stock ID : 24019