POLAND 1619 SPEED UNUSUAL ANTIQUE ORIGINAL COPPER ENGRAVED MINIATURE MAP

Description: Striking and highly detailed interesting 1619 John Speed's copper engraved miniature map of Poland, engraved by Pieter van den Keere. Covers also a bit of  Germany. The map notes cities, towns, lakes, rivers, reliefs and islands. A decorative title cartouche and a mileage scale adorn the sheet. English text on the verso.

Date: 1619 ( undated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 15,6 x 9,8

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Paper with chains. Map uncolored. Small top and lower margins. Wide lateral margins. Small foxing and browning. Conditions are as you can see in the images. 

Mapmaker: John Speed (1551/52 – 1629) was an English cartographer and historian.
 
Initially, he worked in his father's tailoring business. He moved to London in 1567. In 1572, John Speed married Susanna Draper from London, who had 12 sons and six daughters.
 
Due to his excellent knowledge of history, he became known in influential scientific circles. He joined the Antiquarian Society, where he was encouraged to do research work.
 
In 1595 he published a four-sheet map of Canaan. In the following years, he worked on a series of maps of English counties and cities, which he would later compile in the atlas The Theater of the Empire of Great Britaine, published in 1612. Because the original engraver William Rogers died in 1604, many of the maps were engraved in Amsterdam by Jodocus Hondius. A pocket edition of the atlas, engraved by Pieter Van den Keere, appeared in 1619.
 
With their detailed town plans and descriptive texts, Speed's maps filled the needs of the time and quickly replaced the earlier Saxton atlases generally in use until then. Not only were they more up to date, but undoubtedly the beauty of the engraving, the fine lettering and the elaborate ornamentation appealed to the original buyers. As a result of the great success of these atlases, a world atlas appeared in 1627: Prospect Of The Most Famous Parts of the World, with 22 to 28 maps, also engraved in Amsterdam. Many of these maps were issued with decorated borders.
 
Numerous re-editions of these atlases were published, regularly supplemented with new maps.
 
He died in 1629, one year after his wife, Susanna.
 
Pieter van den Keere was born in Ghent in 1571 as the son of the type-founder, Hendrik van den Keere. In 1584 he moved with his family for religious reasons to London. There, Van den Keere received training as an engraver from Jodocus Hondius, his brother-in-law. Not only the companionship with Jodocus Hondius but also the acquaintanceship with Pieter van den Berghe (Petrus Montanus) author of the text of the Germania Inferior originates from the years of refuge in London.

In 1593, both Keere and Hondius settled in Amsterdam. There, one of the first big enterprises was the large wall map of Europe, dated 1595: Nova totius Europae descriptio.
 
In 1610 he set up a workshop in the Kalverstraat that he called ‘In den onseeckeren tijd’ (In the uncertain time). In this period, he made numerous copperplates, including for maps for his atlas of the Netherlands and the Atlas Minor published by Jodocus Hondius.

The Germania Inferior (1617) is the first original atlas of the Netherlands published in folio size. The text for the atlas, both in Dutch and in French, was written by Petrus Montanus. After 1623, Claes Jansz. Visscher bought the plates and substituted his name for that of Kaerius’s. In 1634, Visscher included many of these maps in his Germana Inferior.
 
The fame of Kaerius is not only based on his atlas of the Netherlands. He is even better known as an engraver of many loose-leaf maps and as a collaborator of book publishers. His maps are found, i.a., in the Caert thresoor (Barent Langenes, 1598), Licht der Zeevaert (Blaeu, 1608), Atlas Minor (Hondius, 1628), and Caertboeck vande Midellandsche Zee (Barents, 1595).