(London): George Humble, (1627). First state. Engraved hand-colored world map by John Speed, from his atlas A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World. 15 1/4 x 20 1/8 in. (387 x 511 mm). English text on verso. Illustrated with representations of Water, Earth, Air and Fire, portraits of Ferdinand Magellan, Oliver vander Noort, Thomas Cavendish, and Sir Francis Drake, as well as vignettes of the Zodiac, comments on the Straits of Magellan, Sir Francis Drake, and more. Creasing from old folds; a few scattered stains; margins reinforced with archival strips; repaired chip in top right edge. In mat and in frame, 22 1/4 x 27 in. (565 x 686 mm). Shirley 317; Tooley, p. 113

Rare first state of John Speed's double hemisphere world map. One of the first world maps of its kind printed with English text, and one of the first to depict California as an island. "The idea of California as an island is supposed to have originated with a Carmelite Friar...possibly on a misconception of the reports of Spanish navigators... It was, however, in England that the mapping of California as an island was first popularised. The first in the field was Henry Briggs... This was copied by John Speed in 1626-27..." (Tooley, p. 110).

Other curious geographic details include the Korean peninsula appearing as an island, the Northwestern coast of North America is labelled with conjectural names, the vast "Southerne Unknowne Land", the city of Manoa ("El Dorado") in South America, and the phantom island of Frisland off the coast of Iceland.