TURKISH EMPIRESOLD

TURKİSH EMPİRE
Newly Augmented by John Speed

SPEED, John

London, 1626

52 x 39,5 cm, hand colored, Framed

Rare 1626 George Humble First Edition.
A nice example of the 1626 George Humble edition of Speed’s map of the Turkish Empire, including the Arabian Peninsula.
This is one of the most decorative English maps of the region issued in the 17th century and the first map of the region published in England. Includes eight views of Ottoman cities and ten costumed figures.

John Speed Biography
John Speed (1551 or ’52 – 28 July 1629) was the best known English mapmaker of the Stuart period. Speed came to mapmaking late in life, producing his first maps in the 1590s and entering the trade in earnest when he was almost 60 years old.
John Speed’s fame, which continues to this day, lies with two atlases, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine (first published 1612), and the Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World (1627). While The Theatre … started as solely a county atlas, it grew into an impressive world atlas with the inclusion of the Prospect in 1627. The plates for the atlas passed through many hands in the 17th century, and the book finally reached its apotheosis in 1676 when it was published by Thomas Bassett and Richard Chiswell, with a number of important maps added for the first time.