A scarce edition of Speed's map of the Isle of Wight

SPEED, John.

Wight Island.
London: Roger Rea, 1665. Coloured. 385 x 510mm.

The Isle of Wight, with inset town plans of Southampton and Newport, engraved by Jodocus Hondius in 1610 and published in John Speed's county atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain'.
This example comes from the 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.


Stock ID : 23823