America with those known parts in that unknowne worlde, both people and manner of buildings Described and inlarged.. de SPEED, John (c.1552-1629) - 1676

London: Thomas Bassett and Richard Chiswell, 1676. Copper engraved map, engraved by Abraham Goos. Inset of Greenland and the Arctic. Side borders composed of ten figures in native costume, upper border comprised of eight city views. Speed's famous map of North and South America, among the most decorative maps of the seventeenth century. This famous map by Speed, first issued in 1626, was when issued among the most accurate depictions of the east coast of North America. The large depiction of California as an island is after the rare map by Briggs and was the first such depiction to appear in an atlas. Numerous ships and sea monsters appear in both the Atlantic and Pacific. "Decorating the whole are three attractive borders. The two sides illustrate the natives of the continent, the left bears those of the north and the right those of the south" (Burden). The city views along the top depict Havana, St. Domingo, Cartagena, Mexico, Cusco, Moca, Rio de Janiero and Oldina. "Despite the map's obvious attention to the English presence in North America, none of the eight towns represented ... are from that part. This is owing to the relative lack of any contemporary views to draw upon" (Burden). The present copy is an example of the fourth state, published in 1676, with Bassett and Chiswell's imprint in the lower left. Tooley notes that while the copperplate is unchanged from the previous state (save for the addition of the aforementioned imprint) that "the text on the reverse is not only reset but rewritten. There is no fleuron heading, New York and Maryland are mentioned for the first time in the text to Virginia ... and Hochelaga, Quebec and Tadusac added to the description of Canada" (Tooley). Burden, The Mapping of North America I: 217 (state 4); Tooley, "California as an Island," 5 in Tooley, The Mapping of America ; McLaughlin, The Mapping of California as an Island 3.