Hertfordshire Maps

52x39 cm

HARTFORDSHIRE DESCRIBED | The sittuations of Hartford, | and the most an: | cient towne S Albons with such memorable actions as have happened
Performed by Iohn Speede and are | to be sold by by Iohn | Sudbury and George Humbell | Cum Privilegio
Jodocus Hondius celavit 

John Speed (1552-1629), born in Farndon, Cheshire, the son of John Speed, Citizen of London and Merchant Taylor, and his wife Elizabeth Cheyne. He married Susanna Draper on 25th January 1575 at Christchurch, Greyfriars and they had eighteen children. He became a freeman of the Merchant Taylors Company September 1580. In 1598 he was appointed to the sinecure of customs-waiter, with the use of a room in the Custom House by Queen Elizabeth.  He pursued an interest in history and antiquities, became a member of the Society of Antiquaries and was a friend of William Camden. He was paid for making maps for King James I in 1605 and 1608 and granted a coat of arms in about 1606. John Speed is said to have introduced the rolling press to England, a suggestion supported by the evidence that the first recorded rolling press printer in London was George Lowe, one of Speed's apprentices. In 1611 he published his History of Great Britaine, and in the following year, as the topographical supplement to the History, he issued his Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. 
The maps were designed and engraved by Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) in Amsterdam, from materials and instructions sent to him by Speed. Jodocus Hodius was born Joost de Hondt at Wakken, West flanders 12 Oct 1563. His family moved to Ghent in 1565 and Hondius is recorded in London in 1583 as Jost de Hondt, graver, in Southwark. He seems to have moved to Amsterdam by 1593, his son Jodocus baptised there in November 1593, although a daughter, Abigail was baptised in the Dutch Church in London 6 July 1595. He died in Amsterdam 10 Feb. 1612.
Speed's main cartographical contribution were the town plans, Speed claiming authorship "by mine owne travails" to those that include a scale of paces. The county maps are based on the surveys of Christopher Saxton and John Norden but the inclusion of the internal administrative divisions of the counties was an addition by Speed perpetuated in most county maps that followed for the next 300 years. The descriptive text on the back of the maps is taken from Camden. On 29th April 1608 George Humble obtained the rights to print and sell the atlas for twenty-one years but publication did not actually start until 1611. Speed's maps continued to be issued by various publishers until at least 1770, a publication period of one hundred and sixty years.
Speed died 28th July 1629, aged seventy-seven and was buried at St Giles Cripplegate, a memorial erected there in his memory.

A very good example of John Speed's map of Hertfordshire from the Latin edition published between 1616 and 1646, very scarce in in full original hand colour. Most editions can be positively identified from the text settings verso but the Latin issues of 1616, 1621 and 1646 were printed from the same type-setting making identifcation of a loose map impossible. The plate is in the first published engraved state, lacking the additions of the Celtic tribes and Roman Verulamium. There is some minor browning from the verdigris used in the green pigments and the sizing of the paper has caused the ink from the text verso to show slightly in a heavier brown than the paper background. These minor issues can be forgiven when considering the scarcity of John Speed maps in genuine original hand colour. A small old repair or reinforcement to a short split at the bottom centrefold 10mm clear of the plate edge is the only repair to an otherwise fine, undamaged map in rare original hand colour with good margins all round. 
Hodson Printed Maps of Hertfordshire 7(ii)