Editing John Speed (section)

==Works==
===Biblical genealogies===
[[File:John Speed's Sacred Genealogies page 1.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Opening of the ''Genealogies'', 1611]]
The Puritan clergyman scholar [[Hugh Broughton]] developed his study of Old Testament chronology and concordance in his work ''A Concent of Scripture'' in editions of 1588/89 and 1590, with illustrations said to be engraved by [[Jodocus Hondius]].<ref>H. Broughton, ''A Concent of Scripture'' (Richard Watkins for Gabriell Simson and William White, London 1588/1589), full text at [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A16964.0001.001/1:7?rgn=div1;view=toc Umich/eebo].</ref> John Speed, "by acquaintance with Mr. Broughton, [had] grown very studious in the scriptures" (wrote [[John Lightfoot]]), "and by his directions grown very Skilfull in them". Owing to the censure of puritan doctrines, Broughton recruited John Speed to see the work through the press, and from this collaboration arose the abstract of sacred genealogies first issued in Speed's name in 1592.<ref name=Macfarlane>K. Macfarlane, 'The Biblical Genealogies of the King James Bible (1611): Their Purpose, Sources, and Significance', ''The Library'', vol. 19, issue 2, (June 2018), [https://academic.oup.com/library/article/19/2/131/5040809?login=true pp. 131–158] (academic.oup). See also '3. From Chronology to Genealogy', in K. Macfarlane, ''Biblical Scholarship in an Age of Controversy: The Polemical World of Hugh Broughton (1549-1612)'' (Oxford University Press 2021), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ybdFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 pp. 85-111] (Google).</ref><ref name=Lightfoot>J. Lightfoot (ed.), ''The Works of the Great Albionean Divine: Renown'd in Many Nations for Rare Skill in Salems & Athens Tongues'' (London: Nathaniel Ekins, 1662), [https://books.google.com/books?id=TMPtMgEACAAJ&pg=PP14 Preface] (Google): cited by Macfarlane.</ref> In around 1595 the two men brought out an index to that work.<ref>H. Broughton and J. Speed, ''A direction to finde all those names expressed in that large table of genealogies of Scripture lately gathered by I.S. whereof the first number serueth for the side margentes, and the later answerable to the highest fygures'' (London, ?1595), full text at [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A16970.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1;view=toc Umich/eebo].</ref> To that period belongs Speed's first [[John Speed map of Canaan|''Map of Canaan'']] (after [[Benito Arias Montano|Montanus]]) in four sheets.

[[File:Speed Portrait Holy Land.JPG|thumb|left|200px|Speed's portrait, from the version of More's ''Map of Canaan'' re-engraved after 1666]]
In October 1610 Speed was granted a royal patent by King James to publish his genealogical work.<ref>M.A.E. Green (ed.), ''Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, James I: 1603-1610'' (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, London 1857), [https://books.google.com/books?id=IK0J_ZtpJ2cC&pg=PA639 p. 639] (Google).</ref> In 1611, as ''The Genealogies recorded in the Sacred Scriptures according to euery family and tribe with the line of Our Sauior Jesus Christ obserued from Adam to the Blessed Virgin Mary'', it was incorporated into the first edition of the [[King James Bible]]. For many years, this work (which had its own title-page) was bound into all copies of the Authorised Version, and it was reprinted for that purpose many times during the 17th century.<ref>See, e.g., a 1636 printing bound in with a 1637 Robert Barker bible in the British Library, digitized at [https://books.google.com/books?id=xeFmAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP13 Google].</ref> It contained some now-famous illustrations, including an image of [[Adam and Eve]] taking fruit from the forbidden tree in the [[Garden of Eden]], and a tree of the nations of the world arising out of [[Noah's Ark]]. The royal patent enabled Speed to have the profit of it in reward for his various great labours.<ref name=Fuller /> Speed is said to have admitted, for this reason, that "Mr Broughton was a means under God of great Blessings to him, and his Children, for worldly comforts": he also reputedly confessed to having burned a great quantity of Broughton's manuscripts.<ref name=Lightfoot />

This work was not merely an ornamental adjunct to the Bible, but had the serious intellectual purpose of expounding a resolution (or at least an explanation) of the differing descents of [[Jesus Christ]] from [[King David]] as they are recited in the Gospels of [[Gospel of St Matthew|St Matthew]] and [[Gospel of St Luke|St Luke]].<ref name=Macfarlane /> His continuation and finishing of the ''Map of Canaan'' originated by a Puritan scholar, the [[Norwich]] minister and chronologer [[John More (minister)|John More]] (who died in 1592), appeared with the date 1611 in the ''King James Version''. But the version of this map which includes portraits of More and Speed was engraved after the Great Fire of London (1666), in which the original plates were destroyed (according to a text within the later map).

In 1616 Speed developed the genealogies into a longer work, ''A Cloud of Witnesses confirming the Humanity of Christ Ihesus'', with lengthy textual explanations, in twelve chapters, for the descents shown in his diagrams or family trees. The first issue was printed by John Beale for Daniel Speed:<ref>J. Speed, ''A Clowd of Witnesses and They the Holy Genealogies of the Sacred Scriptures'' (By John Beale for Daniel Speed, in Pauls Church Yard at the sign of the Blazing Starre, 1616): page views at [https://books.google.com/books?id=iT-rgYoHMoIC&pg=PP1 Google].</ref> (Daniel was presumably the stationer who had licence to marry Matilda Garrett in February 1617/18).<ref name=Chester /> Beale printed a second edition in 1620, with a dedication to [[George Abbot (bishop)|George Abbot]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] 1611-1633,<ref>J. Speed, ''A Clowd of Witnesses and They the Holy Genealogies of the Sacred Scriptures. Confirming unto us the truth of the histories in Gods most holy word, and the humanitie of Christ Iesus. The second addition.'' (John Beale, London 1620): full text at [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A12716.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext Umich/eebo].</ref> and a third appeared in 1628 printed by Felix Kyngston for Edward Blackmore, Speed's son-in-law.<ref>(Worldcat).</ref> Speed's distinctive style of genealogical diagram, with the names contained in circular bubbles linked in chains, later appeared in the royal genealogies in the 1623 edition of the ''History''.

===''History'' and ''Theatre''===
[[File:Renold Elstrack, James I and Anne of Denmark, NGA 38353.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Dynastic representation of King James printed by John Speed, by 1612. The tree ascends to Henry, Prince of Wales.]] 
John Speed's fame today rests, in popular estimation, upon his work as map-maker, but this should not be held separate from his important contributions as a historian, chronologer, and scriptural genealogist. Many of his publications reached their definitive form in 1611. The succession of King [[James VI of Scotland]] to [[Union of the Crowns|the crown of England and Wales]], and to that of Ireland, upon the death of Queen [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth]] in 1603, brought the [[House of Tudor|Tudor dynasty]] to a close and inaugurated the [[House of Stuart]] monarchy of Great Britain. Speed's historical researches under the patronage of Fulke Greville were stimulated or assisted by [[William Camden]] ([[Clarenceux King of Arms]]), Sir [[Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington|Robert Cotton]], Sir [[Henry Spelman]], [[John Barkham (antiquary)|John Barkham]], William Smith ([[Rouge Dragon Pursuivant]])<ref name=olddnb>{{Cite DNB |wstitle= Speed, John | volume= 53 |last= Pollard  |first= Albert  |author-link= Albert Pollard |pages = 318-320 |short=1}}</ref> and others, who during the 1580s together formed the Elizabethan [[Proposals for an English Academy#Elizabethan proposals|College of Antiquaries]], predecessor of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|London Society of Antiquaries]]. Their interests were rooted in early-medieval English antiquities. But (after the abolition of that college by James I in 1607) Speed's work came together, ''Cum Privilegio'', as an instrument of the unification of British kingship in the person of King James,<ref>J. Speed, ''History of Great Britaine Under the Conquests of Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans'', 2nd, revised edition (London 1623) Dedication page.</ref><ref name=Canny /> much as the [[King James Version|"Authorized Version" of the English Bible]] to which Speed contributed his sacred genealogies. This English Bible was promulgated in the same year of 1611.
 
[[File:John Stow's monument, St Andrew Undrshaft.jpg|thumb|left|200px|John Stow, Chronicler and Topographer]]
The chronicler [[John Stow]] (died 1605, also a Merchant Taylor), Speed's elder contemporary, from 1562 sought to disentangle the confused order of the English Chronicles, finding much fault in "the ignorant handling of ancient affairs" by [[Richard Grafton]]: Stow's ''Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'' (and its abridgement) of 1566/67, several times republished,<ref>e.g. J. Stow, ''A Summarie of the Chronicles of England. Diligently collected, abridged, and continued unto... 1598'' (Richard Bradocke, London 1598).</ref> his ''Chronicles of England from Brute unto this present yeare of Christ, 1580'',<ref>J. Stow, ''The Chronicles of England from Brute Unto this Present Yeare of Christ 1580'' (R. Newberie and H. Bynneman, London 1580), full text at [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A13043.0001.001?view=toc Umich/eebo].</ref> and his ''The Annales of England'' (1592, 1601, 1605),<ref>J. Stow, ''The Annales of England'' 2nd edition (Felix Kyngston for Ralphe Newbery, London 1601), page views at [https://archive.org/details/annalsofenglandt00stow/page/n21/mode/2up?view=theater Internet Archive].</ref> which itself lists a very wide range of sources, were the immediate predecessors to Speed's ''History'',<ref>D. R. Woolf, ''Reading History in Early Modern England'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000) pp. 39–42.</ref> from the historical aspect, as Camden's ''Britannia'' in the 1607 edition (with county maps) was his chorographical precedent. Stow announced a (much larger) forthcoming history of Britain, ''A Historie of this Iland'', in 1592, but it never reached publication.<ref>C. L. Kingsford, ''English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century'' (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1913), [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t8sb4nr19&view=1up&seq=290&skin=2021 p. 268] (Hathi Trust).</ref><ref>G. J. R. Parry, 'John Stow's unpublished "Historie of this Iland": amity and enmity amongst sixteenth-century scholars', ''English Historical Review'', CII (1987), pp. 633–47.</ref> Editions of [[Florence of Worcester]],<ref>W. Howard of Naworth (ed.), ''Florentii Wigorniensis monachi Chronicon ex Chronicis ab initio mundi usque ad Ann. Dom. 1118'' (Excudebat Thomas Dausonus pro Ricardo Watkins, London 1592)</ref> the ''[[Flores Historiarum]]'',<ref>As "Matthaeus Westmonasteriensis" (Thomas Marsh, London 1573) (with Florentius Wigorniensis) (Typis Wechelianis apud Claudium Marnium et heredes Ioannis Aubrii, Frankfurt 1601).</ref> and of [[William of Malmesbury]], [[Henry of Huntingdon]] and others in Sir [[Henry Savile (Bible translator)|Henry Savile]]'s ''Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam''<ref>H. Savile, ''Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam'' (G. Bishop, R. Nuberie and R. Barker, London 1596).</ref> came into print in the same period. The standard available edition of [[Bede]]'s ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People|Historia Ecclesiastica]]'' (a primary text for the early medieval history of England) was in volume III of the Hervagius (Johannes Herwagen) 1563 ''Opera Bedae Venerabilis''.<ref>''Opera Bedae Venerabilis Presbyteri, Anglosaxonis: Viri in Diuinis atque Humanis Literis Exercitatissimi: omnia in octo tomos distincta'' (Basileae: Joannes Hervagius 1563), III, p. 1 ff.</ref>

[[File:RobertCotton1626.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Sir Robert Cotton]]
Speed naturally drew extensively on the work of his predecessors, including [[Christopher Saxton]] and [[John Norden]] as cartographers, William Camden as chorographer (''Britannia'' 1586),<ref>W. Camden, ''Britannia, sive Florentissimorum Regnorum, Angliae, Scotiae, Hiberniae et Insularum adiacentium ex intima antiquitate Chorographica descriptio'' (Cum Privilegio: Ralph Newbery, London 1587).</ref> and upon Stow and other late chroniclers, in so vast an undertaking (for which Speed considered his own powers quite insufficient), while at the same time revising, improving, verifying and subjecting to scholarly scrutiny all that he could, and where possible obtaining new expert contributions. Some letters survive from Speed to [[Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington|Sir Robert Cotton]], written in the years before publication, asking for assistance in gathering necessary materials.<ref>'XXXI: John Speed the Historian to Sir Robert Cotton' (etc.), in H. Ellis (ed.), ''Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men'' (Camden Society, London 1843), p. 104 and pp. 108–113.</ref> Speed acknowledged gratefully that Sir Robert's cabinets were unlocked and his library set open, to supply the "chiefest garnishments" of this work, such as antique altars and trophies, and ancient coins, seals and medals: that the books and collections of John Barkham were similarly brought to his assistance; and that William Smith, Rouge Dragon, had particularly helped in matters of heraldry.<ref name=Kippis />

From the first page of the ''Histories'' a fresh approach is afoot. Speed dispenses with the full list of pseudo-historic rulers stemming from [[Brutus of Troy|Brutus the supposed founder of Britain]], drawn from [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''History of the Kings of Britain'' and repeated by Stow,<ref>J. Stow, "The race of the Kings of Brytaine after the received opinion since Brute, &c", in ''The Annales of England'' (Felix Kyngston for Ralphe Newbery, London 1601), at [https://archive.org/details/annalsofenglandt00stow/page/n35/mode/2up?view=theater pp. 11-21] (Internet Archive).</ref> and instead touches upon the Trojan theory in his discussion of the ''Name of Britain''. Coming into the Saxon narrative, marginal references identify the sources of information from [[Gildas]] (''[[De Excidio Britanniae]]''), Bede, [[Widukind of Corvey]] and many others, presenting an erudite voice and a discursive historical method, while preserving the structure and chronology relating to the seven kingdoms, and illustrating coins and other materials in true antiquarian fashion. [[James Spedding]], noting the limitations in Speed's account of [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]], allowed that his ''Historie'' "was enriched with some valuable records and digested with a more discriminating judgement than had been brought to the task before."<ref>J. Spedding, 'Preface to the History of the Reign of Henry VII', in J. Spedding, R.L. Ellis and D.D. Heath (eds), ''The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam'', vol. 6: Literary and Professional Works, vol. 1, New Edition (Longmans & Co., London 1870), [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.184507/page/n11/mode/2up?view=theater at p. 4] (Internet Archive).</ref>

===''History of Great Britaine''===
In the first edition of his ''History of Great Britaine'' (1611),<ref>J. Speed, ''The History of Great Britaine under the conquests of the Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. Their Originals, Manners, Warres, Coines, and Seales: with ye Successions, Lives, Acts, & Issues of the English Monarchs from Julius Caesar, to our most gracious soueraigne King Iames'', 1st Edition (Imprinted by William Hall and Iohn Beale for John Sudbury and George Humble, cum Privilegio, London 1611), text at [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A68764.0001.001 Umich/eebo]; (1614 reissue), page views at [https://books.google.com/books?id=L9DE_ER5tAsC&pg=PA139 Google].</ref> following the "Proem", the historical text begins as page 155 of the whole work, to which the maps of that edition are counted as occupying the preceding page-numbers, and presented separately as ''The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain''.<ref>J. Speed, C. Schweitzer, J. Hondius, ''The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine: Presenting an Exact Geography of the Kingdomes of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Iles Adioyning: with the Shires, Hundreds, Cities and Shire-townes, within ye kingdome of England, divided and described by Iohn Speed'' (William Hall for Iohn Sudbury & Georg Humble, London 1611/1612); full text (with county descriptions, etc), at [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A68764.0001.001 Umich/eebo].</ref> "This collection makes a noble apparatus to his history", observed [[Richard Gough (antiquarian)|Richard Gough]], who noted that these were the first maps in which all the counties are divided into [[hundred (county division)|hundreds]], and that those which Speed derived from Saxton's maps were mostly so corrected or amended as to supersede any attribution to Saxton. The County descriptions printed on the reverse of the maps were mainly adapted from those of William Camden.<ref>R. Gough, ''Anecdotes of British Topography: Or, an Historical Account of What has been Done for Illustrating the Topographical Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland'' (T. Payne and W. Brown, London 1768), [https://books.google.com/books?id=WzHeAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA42 p. 42] (Google).</ref> Speed's ''magnum opus'' is from this point a twin [[Chorography|Chorographical]] and Historical work. In the issue of 1614 and the second, revised and augmented edition (of 1623)<ref>J. Speed, ''History of Great Britaine Under the Conquests of Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans'', Second, Revised Edition (London 1623); page views at [https://books.google.com/books?id=nsw-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PP5 Google].</ref> the whole work is introduced as being in ten Chapters, of which the first four (the "Chorographicall Part") are the maps, arranged as:
* (1) Describing the whole Kingdome in generall, with those Shires, Cities, and Shire-townes which are properly accounted for English
* (2) Containing the Counties of Wales (13)
* (3) Scotlands Kingdom in one Generall (1)
* (4) Containing the Kingdome of Ireland – a general plan, and maps of Munster, Leinster, Connaught and Ulster (5)
The work then proceeds to the "Historicall Part", Books 5-10, arranged as follows:
* (5) The Site, Names, Ancient Inhabitants, Manners, Government, Governors, Costume and Appearance of Great Britain and the Ancient British.
* (6) The Monarchs of Great Britain under the Romans (54 sections).
* (7) The Saxon Kings and English Monarchs, from the downfall of Britain and the origins and arrival of the Saxons, through the Heptarchy, from Hengest (sect. 13) to Edmund Ironside (sect. 45).
* (8) The Danish rulers, with their origins and first assaults, and in detail from Cnut to Harold II (7 sections).
* (9) The Norman rulers and their origins, continued from William I to the end of Elizabeth I (24 sections).
* (10) "James, our dread Soueraigne".

The many coins, seals and other antiquities illustrated in Speed's text were cut by the Swiss wood-engraver Christoph Schweitzer. An important feature of the ''History'' is Speed's "Catalogue of the Religious Houses, Colledges, and Hospitals Sometimes in England and Wales", appended to the reign of Henry VIII,<ref>Speed, ''History of Great Britain'' (1611/1614), [https://books.google.com/books?id=L9DE_ER5tAsC&pg=PA787 pp. 787-802] (Google); (1623), [https://books.google.com/books?id=nsw-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1059 pp. 1059–1105] (Google).</ref> said to have been compiled by [[William Burton (antiquary, died 1645)|the elder William Burton]].<ref>"In Catalogo Monasteriorum (a Gulielmo Burton (ut accepi) collecto, et apud Spedum edito)...": H. Spelman, ''Concilia, Decreta, Leges, Constitutiones in Re Ecclesiarum Orbis Britannici'', 3 vols (R. Badger, for Ph. Stepani and Ch. Meredith, London 1636), I, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AtijDAEACAAJ&pg=PA215 p. 215, Note] (Google).</ref><ref>W. Nicolson, "J. Speed", in ''The English Historical Library'' (Abell Swall and T. Child, London 1696), I, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uOY9AAAAcAAJ&q=Speed&pg=RA1-PA194-IA10 pp. 194-95] (Google).</ref><ref name=Kippis>A. Kippis, 'John Speed', in ''Biographia Britannica'', 6 vols (J. Walthoe, etc., London 1763 edition), vol. 6 pt 1, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HghUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA3773 pp. 3773–775], [https://books.google.com/books?id=HghUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA3774 at p. 3774, note E] (Google).</ref> The list was published in Latin in 1622 as "Catalogus ex Anglico Ioannis Speed, Latinus", as appendix to [[Nicholas Harpsfield]]'s ''Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica''.<ref>"Catalogus Religiosarum Ædium ex Anglico Ioannis Speed, Latinus", in N. Harpsfield and E. Campion, ed. R. Gibbon, ''Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica'' (Marcus Wyon, Douai 1622), [https://books.google.com/books?id=1VlQAAAAcAAJ&pg=741 pp. 741-79] (Google).</ref>

===''The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine''===
[[File:Bitterley Hoard gold crown of James I.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Gold crown of King James, exemplifying the [[Union of the crowns]]]]
Speed is now best-known as a map-maker, and above all for his atlas, ''The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine'' (1611, 1616, 1623), which attempted a complete set of individual county maps of [[England]] and [[Wales]], as well as maps of [[Ireland]] and a general map of [[Scotland]].<ref>J. Speed, ed. N. Nicolson and A. Hawkyard, ''Britain's Tudor Maps: County by County'' (Batsford 2017), pp. 9–10, 13, 15–16. Nicolson's introduction is at pp. 7-15.</ref><ref>James Granger, in the '"Corrections and Additions Supplement" of his ''Biographical History of England'', vol. 3 (T. Davies, etc., London 1774) p. 234 referring to vol. 1 p. 503.</ref> A 21-year royal privilege (franchise) for the printing of Speed's ''Theatre'' was granted to George Humble in April 1608.<ref>M. A. E. Green (ed.), ''Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, James I: 1603-1610'' (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, London 1857) p. 425.</ref> The collection developed cumulatively, together with his ''History'', and was undertaken with the encouragement of [[William Camden]].<ref name=olddnb /><ref name=Gardner /> The entire work, including the ''History'', was dedicated to King [[James VI and I|James I]] as the ruler in whom the distinct Kingdoms of the British Isles had been brought together under one rule in such a way as to form an ''Empire''.<ref>C. Ivic, "Mapping British identities: Speed's 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine'," in D. J. Baker and W. Maley (eds), ''British Identities and English Renaissance Literature'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002), at pp. ix, 135, 138, 141, 150, 162, 248.</ref><ref name=Canny>N. Canny, 'The Origins of Empire: An Introduction', in N. Canny (ed.), ''The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century'', The Oxford History of the British Empire series, vol. 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, reprint) pp. 1-2.</ref> 

In the Introduction to his "well affected and favourable reader", Speed acknowledged that he had "copied, adapted and compiled the work of others" rather than making an entirely new survey. He took various existing maps as his models, crediting five to [[Christopher Saxton]], five to John Horden, two to William Smith, one to Philip Symonson (Kent) and others to John Harrington (Rutland), William White, Thomas Durham, James Burrell, and [[Geradus Mercator]]. Much of the engraving was done in [[Amsterdam]] at the workshop of the Flemish engraver [[Jodocus Hondius]], to whom Speed's project was recommended by Camden,<ref>"LXIII. G. Camdenus Jodoco Hondio", in T. Smith (ed.), ''V. Cl. Gulielmi Camdeni et Illustrium Virorum ad G. Camdenum Epistolae'' (Richard Chiswell, London 1691) pp. 87-88.</ref> and with whom Speed collaborated from 1606 until Hondius's sudden death in 1612.<ref name=Nicol /> The maps were printed by William Hall and John Beale, and sold by John Sudbury and George Humble.<ref>Andrew, "Speed maps now in the Cambridge Digital Library" Cambridge University Library Special Collections, 23 March 2015.</ref><ref>Gough, ''Anecdotes of British Topography'' p. 42.</ref>

[[File:William Camden by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.jpg|thumb|right|200px|William Camden, Clarenceux]]
Speed is admired also for his detailed plans of principal British towns, several of which are the earliest-known depictions of those places and provide valuable topographical insights.<ref name=Nicol>N. Nicolson, "Introduction", in John Speed, ed. Nicolson and Hawkyard, ''Britain's Tudor Maps: County by County'' (London: British Library, reprint, 2016, originally published in 1988) pp. 7–15.</ref> Most, but not all, of the county maps have town plans inset; those showing a ''Scale of Passes'' (i.e., ''Paces'', reckoned at five feet imperial) were surveyed by Speed himself. On the back of the maps a text in English appears, describing the areas shown: a rare 1616 edition of the British maps has the text in Latin, in a translation by [[Philemon Holland]], thought to have been produced for the Continental market.<ref>''Theatrum Imperii Magnæ Britanniæ: exactam regnorum Angliæ Scotiæ Hiberniæ et insularum adiacentium geographia[m] ob oculos ponens: una cum comitatibus, centurijs, urbibus et primarijs comitatum oppidis intra regnum Angliæ, divisis et descriptis. Opus, nuper quidem à Iohanne Spédo cive Londinensi Anglicè conscriptum: nunc verò, à Philemone Hollando, apud Coventrianos medicinæ doctore, Latinitate donatum'' (T. Snodham apud Ioann Sudbury et Geo. Humble, London 1616) Bibliothèque Nationale Française</ref> His maps of English and Welsh counties were often bordered with costumed figures ranging from [[nobility]] to country folk.<ref>A. McRae ''God Speed the Plough: The Representation of Agrarian England, 1500–1660'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002, reprint), pp. xi, 231–232, 238.</ref> Speed drew historical maps as well as those depicting present times, showing (for instance) invasions of England and Ireland, or the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy,<ref>Goffart, ''Historical Atlases'', pp. xi, 38, 54, 80–81, 83, 105, 112, 123, 201, 203, 443, 471.</ref><ref>Gough ''Anecdotes of British Topography'' pp. 595, 608.</ref><ref>Speed, ed. Nicolson and Hawkyard, ''Britain's Tudor Maps'' (2017), pp. 18–21.</ref> a subject previously attempted (probably by [[Laurence Nowell]]) for [[William Lambarde]]'s ''Archaionomia'' published in 1568.<ref>W. Lambarde, ''Archaionomia, sive De Priscis Anglorum Legibus Libri'' (John Day, London 1568). View Lambarde's Map as re-used by Day in the ''Acts and Monuments'' at [https://www.dhi.ac.uk/foxe/woodcuts/f0142w.gif dhi.ac.uk].</ref>

The "Gardner copies" in the [[Cambridge University Library]] are a collection of proof impressions from the engraved copper plates, taken during the process of checking the detail before the publication of 1611.<ref name="Taylor" /><ref name=Gardner>''Theatre of the Empire'', Gardner Collection, digitized images of the collection (Classmark: Atlas 2.61.1) at [https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-ATLAS-00002-00061-00001/1 Cambridge University Library].</ref> In describing his intentions Speed admitted the possibility of errors despite his best endeavours:

{{blockquote|my purpose... in this Island (besides other things) is to shew the situation of every Citie and Shire-town only... The Shires divisions into Lathes, Hundreds, Wapentakes and Cantreds, according to their ratable and accustomed manner, I have separated, and under the same title that the record beareth, in their due places distinguished: wherein by help of the tables annexed, any Citie, Towne, Borough, Hamlet, or Place of Note may readily be found, and whereby safely may be affirmed, that there is not any one Kingdome in the World so exactly described, as is this our ''Island'' of Great Britaine... In shewing these things, I have chiefly sought to give satisfaction to all, without offence to any...<ref>"Speed's Address to His Readers", in West, ''The History, Topography and Directory of Warwickshire'' [https://archive.org/details/b28408111/page/38/mode/2up?view=theater at pp. 38–41] (Internet Archive).</ref>}}

The maps, in two-folio spreads, represented: Fol. 1, The British Isles; 3, [[England]] (General); 5, The [[Saxon]] Heptarchy; 7, [[Kent]]; 9, [[Sussex]]; 11, [[Surrey]]; 13, [[Hampshire]]; 15, [[Isle of Wight]]; 17, [[Dorset]]; 19, [[Devon]]; 21 [73], [[Cornwall]]; 23, [[Somerset]]; 25, [[Wiltshire]]; 27, [[Berkshire]]; 29, [[Middlesex]]; 31, [[Essex]]; 33, [[Suffolk]]; 35, [[Norfolk]]; 37, [[Cambridgeshire]]; 39, [[Hertfordshire]]; 41, [[Bedfordshire]]; 43, [[Buckinghamshire]]; 45, [[Oxfordshire]]; 47, [[Gloucestershire]]; 49, [[Herefordshire]]; 51, [[Worcestershire]]; 53, [[Warwickshire]]; 55, [[Northamptonshire]]; 57, [[Huntingdon]]; 59, [[Rutland]]; 61, [[Leicestershire]]; 63, [[Lincolnshire]]; 65, [[Nottinghamshire]]; [67], [[Derbyshire]]; 69, [[Staffordshire]]; 71, [[Shropshire]]; 73 [21], [[Cheshire]]; 75, [[Lancashire]]; 77, [[Yorkshire]]; 79, [[West Riding]]; 81, [[North Riding|North]] and [[East Riding of Yorkshire|East Riding]]s; 83, [[County Durham|Durham-Bishopric]]; 85, [[Westmorland]]; 87, [[Cumberland]]; 89, [[Northumberland]]; [91], [[Isle of Man]]; 93, Islands ([[Holy Island, Anglesey|Holy Island]], the [[Farne Islands]], the [[Channel Islands]]). 99, [[Wales]] (General); 101, [[Pembrokeshire]]; 103, [[Carmarthenshire]]; 105, [[Glamorganshire]]; 109, [[Radnorshire]]; 111, [[Cardiganshire]]; 113, [[Montgomeryshire]]; 115, [[Merionethshire]]; 117, [[Denbighshire]]; 119, [[Flintshire]]; 121, [[Carnarvonshire]]; 123, [[Anglesey]]. 131, [[Scotland]] (General). 137, [[Ireland]] (General); 139, [[Munster]]; 141, [[Leinster]]; 143, [[Connaught]]; 145, [[Ulster]]. In 2016, the [[British Library]] reprinted this collection of maps of the British Isles with an introduction by [[Nigel Nicolson]] and commentaries by Alasdair Hawkyard.<ref name=Nic /><ref>Speed, ed. Nicolson and Hawkyard, ''Britain's Tudor Maps'' (2017), pp. 6–152.</ref>

===Counties (examples)===
<gallery mode=packed heights=150px style="text-align:left">
File:Lancashire 1610 Speed Hondius - Restoration.jpg|The [[Lancashire|Countie Pallatine of Lancaster]] described and divided into hundreds, 1610
File:John Speed Wiltshire.jpg|[[Wiltshire|Wilshire]], 1610, with a town plan of Salisbury and a view of Stonehenge
File:Speed Northampton.jpg|[[Northamptonshire]], 1610
File:John Speed - Map of Hampshire.jpg|[[Hampshire]], 1610
File:John Speed Wales.jpg|[[Wales]], 1610
</gallery>

===Town inserts (examples)===
<gallery>
File:Bedford - John Speed's map (1611).jpg|[[Bedford]]e, 1611
File:Dublin in 1610 - reprint of 1896.jpg|[[Dublin]]e, 1610; an 1896 reprint
File:Old map of Monmouth, Wales.jpg|[[Monmouth]], 1610
File:John Speed's map of Oxford, 1605..jpg|[[Oxford]], 1610
File:Map of Redding by John Speed, 1611.jpg|[[Reading, Berkshire|Redding]], 1610
File:A map of York england.jpg|[[York]], 1611 
</gallery>
===Views of Welsh towns (examples)===
Speed represented Wales as a separate province from England but not as an [[Welsh independence|independent entity]].<ref>C. Ivic, {{" '}}bastard Normans, Norman bastards': anomalous identities in 'The Life of Henry the Fift{{' "}}, in P. Schwyzer and W. Maley (eds), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=28jOB3d33BkC Shakespeare and Wales: From the Marches to the Assembly]'' (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010), pp. 75–82.</ref><ref>R. Hingley, [https://books.google.com/books?id=36gSDAAAQBAJ ''The Recovery of Roman Britain 1586–1906: A Colony So Fertile''] (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 17, 21, 23, 36, 40, 44–53.</ref>
<gallery>
File:Speed Bangor insert.jpg|[[Bangor, Gwynedd|Bangor]], 1610
File:Speed Brecon insert.jpg|[[Brecon]], 1610
File:Speed Cardiff insert.jpg|[[Cardiff]], 1610
File:Speed Montgomery insert.jpg|[[Montgomeryshire|Montgomery]], 1610
File:Speed St David's insert.jpg|[[St David's]], 1610
</gallery>

===''A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World''===
In 1627, two years before his death, was published Speed's ''A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World'', printed by John Dawson for George Humble.<ref>J. Speed ''A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World: Together with that Large Theater of Great Brittaines Empire'' (John Dauson for George Humble, London 1627).</ref><ref>Library of Congress catalog ''A prospect of the most famovs parts of the vvorld'' London, Printed by John Dawson for G. Humble 1627.</ref> This was the first world atlas produced by an Englishman.<ref>See Mapforum articles, [https://mapforum.com/2022/02/10/john-speed-a-prospect-of-the-most-famous-parts-of-the-world/ Issue 03 (Relocated 2022)], "John Speed: A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World" (mapforum.com).</ref> The principal sheets included the continents of 3, Asia, 5, Affrica, 7, Europe, 9, America;<ref name=LoCam>"America with those known parts in that unknowne worlde both people and manner of buildings, 1626". View 3 copies at the [https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3290.ct007271/?st=image&r=-0.438,0,1.876,0.769,0 Library of Congress digital resource].</ref> with the following domains, 11, Greece; 13, The Romane Empire; 15, Germanie; 17, Bohemia; 19, France; 21, Belgia; 23, Spaine; 25, Italia; 27, Hungarie; 29, Denmarke; 31, Poland; 33, Persia; 35, Turkish Empire; 37, Kingdom of China; 39, Tartarie; 41, Sommer Islands (Bermudas).<ref>See Image of title page of 1631 edition at [https://thomaslayton.org.uk/2020/05/13/a-prospect-of-the-most-famous-parts-of-the-world-with-the-theatre-of-the-empire-of-great-britaine-john-speed-1631/ The Layton Collection, London] (thomaslayton.org.uk). Select "Zoom in".</ref> With it were also included the County and Kingdom maps from the ''Theatre'', corresponding to the third edition of that work, together with a ''New and Accurat Map of the World'' in a double hemisphere projection.<ref>View at [https://digital.library.yale.edu/catalog/15825159 Yale University Library digital collections]. See also a coloured example at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library</ref> A facsimile edition was published in 1966.<ref>R.A. Skelton (ed.), ''John Speed. A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World. London 1627'' (facsimile), Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 3rd Series, volume VI (Amsterdam 1966).</ref>

At 40 [[shillings]], its circulation was limited to wealthier sort of customers, and to libraries, where many copies are nowadays preserved.<ref name=Nicol /><ref>M. Wynne-Davies, ''Sidney to Milton, 1580–1660'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 138–141, 171, 179–180, 197.</ref><ref name=LoCam /><ref>Library of Congress catalog ''The ilands'' London</ref><ref>Library of Congress catalog ''newe mape of Poland'' 1611.</ref><ref>F.J. Bremer, ''John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 206.</ref><ref>T. Suarez, ''Early Mapping of Southeast Asia: The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who First Mapped the Regions Between China and India'' (London: Tuttle Publishing, 2012), p. 512.</ref>

<gallery mode=packed heights=150px style="text-align:left">
File:A Newe mape of Germany - newly augmented by John Speed - btv1b10111216f (1 of 2).jpg|A Newe Mape of Germany, 1626
File:Map of Seventeen Provinces of Low Germanie (Zeventien Provincien der Nederlanden) 1626.jpg|A New Mape of Ye XVII Provinces, 1626 (The Netherlands)
File:John-Speed-The-Kingdome-of-China-1626-2544.jpg|The Kingdome of China, 1626
File:John speed per george humble, italia newly augmented, 1626, stampa acquarellata 01.jpg|Italia, 1626
</gallery>