A First Edition example of Speed’s map of Middlesex

A highly-decorative map of Middlesex, engraved by Jodocus Hondius and published in the first edition of John Speed's important atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain. It was derived from an unpublished map by John Norden and has inset town plans of London and Westminster (also after surveys by Norden, published 1593) and views of St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. Norden was the first surveyor to plan a series of county histories with maps; however he failed to attract sufficient backing for his enterprise and never completed it, leaving Christopher Saxton to produce the first English county atlas in 1579. However Speed considered Norden's surveying superior to Saxton's and preferred to use Norden as a source where possible. As Saxton did not published a map of Middlesex (only a map of south east England), the only earlier maps of the county were from smaller-format editions of Camden's 'Britannia'.