A rare issue of Speed's map of Asia

SPEED, John.

Asia with the Islands Adioyning described, the atire of the people & Townes of importance, all of them newly augmented by J:S: Ano. Dom: 1626.
London: Roger Rea & Son, 1665. Coloured. 390 x 510mm.

A few small repairs.

A decorative map of Asia, engraved by Abraham Goos for Speed's 'Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World', the first English atlas of the world.
Along the top are eight city prospects: Kandy (Sri Lanka), Goa, Damascus, Jerusalem, Hormuz, Bantam, Aden and Macao. Down the sides are ten costume vignettes. On verso is an English text, 'The Description of Asia', containing a mixture of fact and amusing myth.
The map was first published 1627; 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 : 23982