The first published state of a quartered map by John Speed displaying the tidal Holy Island (Lindisfarne), reachable on foot at low tide and the Farne Islands, both off the coast of Northumberland. On the right side are the two main Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey. This is the first reasonably accurate map of Jersey to be printed. The parish boundaries are marked along with the various waterways, each indicating housing along their courses. In addition, three windmills are displayed. Guernsey displays no real improvement over that of Gerard Mercator published in 1595, but it does now display its proximity to Jersey. Sark now displays buildings and one windmill which had only recently been built by Hellier de Carteret in 1571. He was the first Seigneur of the island. It was famously decapitated by the Nazis in the Second World War. John Speed (1552-1629) is the best known and, among collectors, the most popular British cartographer. He was, like his father, a tailor by trade with a passion for history. On joining the Society of Antiquaries, he took his first steps towards the compilation of the atlas that has placed him among the cartographic immortals.In 1611 he produced the ‘History of Great Britain’ and his atlas, the ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain’, was published to accompany it. The ‘Theatre …’ was the first atlas of the British Isles ever produced, containing sixty-seven maps which, in addition to the counties of England and Wales, also included general maps of the Heptarchy (England in Anglo-Saxon times), Great Britain and Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, and the Provinces of Ireland, together with maps of the Isles of Wight and Man and the Channel Islands. Preparation for the atlas took several years and the maps are all engraved by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam. This example was printed in 1627, the last edition to be published before the death of Speed. Provenance: private Jersey collection. Shirley T.SPE-1e; Skelton 1966; Skelton (1970) 7 & 16.