Somerset 1600

Product Description

Somersetia, an original antique map by P. Van Den Keere, published in Amsterdam, c. 1600 -1617. A copperplate engraving, uncoloured. Map size 12 x 8.5 cm with a mount size of 26.5 x 23 cm. Pieter van den Keere (1571-1646) was an active Dutch engraver best known for his collection of pocket-sized maps of the British Isles, assembled in about 1605. The maps, reprinted by Willem Blaeu in 1617, were subsequently acquired by Speed's publisher George Humble in c.1620. Those plates which showed separate counties were re-engraved, with the titles now in English, & plate numbers added. For those counties previously combined on one sheet, Humble substituted new plates, depicting the counties separately. The atlas was known as the miniature-Speed & was frequently reprinted, from 1627 onwards, often to coincide with folio editions of Speed's maps. Van den Keere also engraved the plates for the miniature edition of Speed's Prospect, published in 1646. Van den Keere
- often known as Kaerius
- also engraved a large number of foreign maps at miniature, quarto & folio sizes & his plates were, in some cases, re-published well into the eighteenth century. This map is from a 1666 edition of the so-called miniature-Speed & shows the county of Somerset. Antique maps from various original publishers are presented on the Stanford