The actual engraver of the map remains unknown.

This world map bears some similarities, both geographically and decoratively, to William Grent's extremely rare broadsheet map of the world, published in London in 1625. This is evidenced by the fact that Speed’s map includes the same four portraits of the circumnavigators, the same English legends, and similar astronomical drawings of eclipses and diagrams of the heavenly spheres. The four allegorical figures representing the elements, and celestial hemispheres are based on Jodocus Hondius’ world map of 1617.

Speed also follows Grent's notion that California is an island, but in this map the shape of the ‘island’ was adopted from Henry Briggs’ map of North America published, like the Grent map, in London in 1625. The popularity and influence of Speed’s maps, both of the world and the Americas, insured the persistence of this misconception.

There are a number of significant differences however, chiefly present on the northwest coast of America and Japan. Speed has also rendered the coastlines of the vast conjectural 'Magellanica' or 'The Southerne Unknowne Land' considerably less emphatically than Grent.

Double-page engraved copperplate double-hemisphere map of the world, with vignettes of alternative projections.

’s world map was the first English language map of its kind and the first to appear in an English atlas. The son of a merchant in London, Speed rose from his family occupation to become one of the most prominent scholars and cartographers of his era. Published near the end of Speed’s career, this world map compiles a host of cartographical information with a special focus on the English colonies in America, notably the first world map to mark the settlement of New Plymouth. The map presents the globe in a double hemisphere and is embellished with astronomical diagrams, allegorical representations of the seasons, and the portraits of famous navigators. 

This world map was first published in Speed’s world atlas, 'A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World' (1627). This atlas shares the same title page as the 1627 edition of his famous 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine' (originally published 1612), which was an immediate success and was printed in miniature versions around 1619. The maps in the 'Theatre' became the basis for subsequent folio atlases until the mid-eighteenth century. Speed had lost his sight by 1625, but nevertheless published his 'Prospect' in 1627 with this map.

Superb impression of the first edition, first state of 

’s iconic map, the world map from the first printed world atlas by an Englishman.

Speed’s World Map