Old Map of Cambridgeshire in 1611 by John Speed - Cambridge, Peterborough, Wisbech, Soft-Colour Edition
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This edition of John Speed's 1611 map of Cambridgeshire returns to the same engraved plate the county is known for, presented here in a softer, wash-toned palette rather than the fuller colouring used on our standard print of the same map. Speed's original appeared in his Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, the first atlas to map every county of England and Wales, engraved in Amsterdam by Jodocus Hondius and published in London from 1611 by John Sudbury and George Humble.
The map itself is unchanged between editions. Cambridge occupies an enlarged inset in the top corner, naming the colleges already established by 1611, among them Trinity, King's College, Corpus Christi, Queens' and Christ's College, with the coats of arms of fifteen colleges arranged around the border. Beyond the university city, the fenland towns of Ely, Peterborough and Wisbech are marked across the flat, drained landscape that defines the county, alongside Huntingdon, March and the smaller villages of the Cambridgeshire countryside. Early Modern spellings appear throughout, a small reminder of how much English place-name usage has shifted over four centuries.
Where this edition differs is purely in its colouring: a muted, historic-looking wash across the land and sea areas in place of the deeper, more saturated tones used elsewhere in our range. It makes a graduation or housewarming gift for a Cambridge alumnus or Cambridgeshire local who'd prefer a softer look on the wall, while keeping every engraved detail of Speed's original plate intact.
