Anglesey Antiently called Mona. Described 1610

Title

Anglesey Antiently called Mona. Described 1610

Description

Decorative map of the island of Anglesey (Latin: Mona Insula) from John Speed's ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain’; it is located off the north coast of Wales. Partial map of the town of Beaumaris, three additional cartouches with coats of arms, large compass rose, sailing ships and sea monsters. Reverse side with English text, an index of towns and floral decorations.

ca. 1623

Artist

Speed (1552-1629)

John Speed was an English cartographer and historian. He is known as England's most famous Stuart period mapmaker. It was with the encouragement of William Camden that Speed began his Historie of Great Britaine, which was published in 1611. Although he probably had access to historical sources that are now lost to us, his work as a historian is considered mediocre and secondary in importance to his map-making, of which his most important contribution is probably his town plans, many of which provide the first visual record of the British towns they depict. Much of the engraving was done in Amsterdam at the workshop of Jodocus Hondius. His maps of English counties are often found framed in homes throughout the United Kingdom.