A good example of John Speed’s map of the county of Monmouth. His maps are noted for being the first to include the boundaries of the hundreds, and for introducing town plans on the maps, here the town of Monmouth is found upper left. It was issued in the ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain’, 1612, the first atlas of the whole British Isles. This example was issued in 1627 edition by John Sudbury and George Humble. Speed (1552-1629) was a tailor by trade and had a fascination for history. He used numerous sources for the counties and had the plates engraved by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam. The book took several years to prepare hence the earlier date 1610 appears here. Provenance: Doreen Green 1989. Shirley ‘Atlases of the British Library’ T.Spe 1e; Skelton 16.