1626 / 1676 John Speed 'carte à figures' Map of Asia

This is John Speed's 1626 map of Asia, the first map of the continent printed in English, in its 1676 edition. This beautiful map is one of the most desirable early maps of continent, combining superb engraving, attractive Dutch styling, and entertaining and abundant English text.

A Closer Look

The map embraces all of Asia, including Japan and the Spice Islands, and a portion of the American northern Pacific coast. The map advertises its source in Hondius (as opposed to Blaeu) by its presentation of Korea as a long peninsula, and by portraying a broad oceanic separation between Asia and America. Speed was an accomplished historian and compiler, drawing his maps from state-of-the-art sources. In this case, the cartography for this map is drawn from the 1623 map of Jodocus Hondius (Speed's engraver, Abraham Goos, was Hondius' student.) With respect to this map, the geography did not significantly advance until the issue of Nicolas Witsen's 1687 map of Tartaria. Speed's use of the Hondius map of 1623 for his model was the best choice he could have made. Speed's map presented to an English audience the state of the art of Dutch mapmaking: the product of a great global rival.

Presenting the Idea of Asia

Speed's maps were the only English ones to employ the decorative elements associated with the carte á figures as a form: key city views along the top border, along with figures to the left and right depicting the denizens of the lands. Across the top of the map are city views of the Indian cities of Candy and Goa, Damascus and Jerusalem of the Levant, the Arabian ports of Ormus and Aden, and the Spice Island entrepots of Bantam and Macao. The figures to the left and right portray the denizens of Syria, Arabia, Armenia, Sumatra, Java, China, the Moluccas and a Balagutan (cases have been made for both India and the Philippines for this one.) It is interesting to note that, along with the figure of a 'Tartarian,' a Muscovite woman is shown here (as opposed to appearing on the map of Europe.)

The Engraver

Speed's adoption of the Dutch carte á figures map style (and indeed, the entirety of the Dutch state-of-the-art for the mapping of Asia) becomes unsurprising when one considers the degree to which Speed was dependent on Dutch engravers. Virtually all of the maps produced for Speed during his lifetime were executed by Jodocus Hondius and (as is the case here) his protégé and student Abraham Goos: it would appear that, until well into the 17th century, the art of engraving in the British Isles was unequal to the challenge posed by the production of maps. Not until this 1676 Bassett and Chiswell edition of Speed's work would maps be included that were actually executed by an Englishman, Francis Lamb.

Publication History and Census

Although Speed died in 1629, his atlas was kept active long afterwards as its plates passed from George Humble to William Garrett to Roger Rea and ultimately to Basset and Chiswell, whose final edition of 1676 is the most easily found. This separate map is listed a handful of times in OCLC in various editions. Basset and Chiswell's Theatre of the Empire of Great-Britain is well represented in institutional collections.