Buy this book on-line SPEED, John - BROWNE, Christopher : Cornwall
380 x 505 mm., with later wash colour, light ink mark lower right, otherwise in good condition.
A superb map of Cornwall by arguably the most famous English cartographer, John Speed (1552-1629). It was published in the 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine', 1612, the first atlas of the whole British Isles. He was a tailor by trade and had a fascination for history. He used numerous sources for the counties, this one is derived from the manuscript of John Norden and had the plates engraved by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam. The book took several years to prepare hence earlier states appear of some, and in this case an earlier proof does exist. His maps are noted for being the first to include the boundaries of the hundreds, and for introducing town plans on the maps. Here we find a fine birds-eye depiction of 'Launceston'. This view is drawn from John Norden's lost manuscript. This issue is from the extremely rare post Bassett and Chiswell edition by Christopher Browne. The dating of the Christopher Browne ownership of the Speed plates is speculative. The previous owners Thomas Bassett and Richard Chiswell had been granted a ten-year privilege which expired in 1686. It would be logical to assume that they would have retained ownership throughout this period. It has been suggested that the plates of the Theatre at least came in to the hands of Robert Walton. Certainly by 1691 they were all in the possession of Browne. A collection of 64 maps sold by Browne was in the possession of Francis Edwards in 1967. The book bore the ownership inscription of Devereux Knightley 1691 and the Irish map by Browne dated the same year was also present. All the maps including those owned by Browne and the Speed’s were printed from the same paper stock. Interestingly of the six county maps known to bear the Browne imprint only one was present. They were replaced by one Speed with Bassett and Chiswell imprint, one Overton and 3 Jansson maps. An explanation may be that they were away at the engravers having the imprints altered. From the evidence we have it is hard to speculate if an atlas edition was intended or whether he just wanted to stamp ownership on them. Of the six that bear his imprint five are contiguous counties in the south west including this one, the sixth is Yorkshire. The atlas if it can be called a regular edition, is exceedingly rare. Only four known collections exist. Hodson 135; Quixley (1966) no. 7; Skelton 116.
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