Langham Village History Group
Pieter van den Keere was born in Ghent, the son of a
schoolmaster, who, as a refugee, fled to London in 1584 to
avoid religious persecution. His sister married the remarkable
engraver Jodocus Hondius, also a refugee, and it was through
him that Keere learnt his trade both as an engraver and
cartographer. In 1593 both Keere and Hondius returned to
settle in Amsterdam where the latter took over the
cartographer Mercator’s business.
Over the years Keere engraved numerous maps for the
popular cartographers of that time. However, he is mostly
known for his early work which included a set of miniature
maps based mainly on Saxton and which were engraved from
1599. They included English and Welsh counties, Scottish
regions and Irish provinces. It is believed that they were
issued circa 1605 – 1610 in Amsterdam with no text on the
reverse. Rutland was accompanied by four other counties on
the same plate, namely: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire. And as the
engraving of Rutland was so small only the places of Okeham, Uppygham, Straton, Ketton and Ticksouer, in
contemporary spelling, appeared. All other English counties had a plate to themselves. In 1617 the maps
were re-issued and published by Willem Janszoon Blaeu with Latin text on the reverse.
Eventually the plates were acquired by George Humble the publisher of Speed’s Atlas. Humble now saw
another profitable means of utilizing Speed’s name and so in 1627 he reprinted Keere’s plates again, in a
pocket Atlas, to coincide with the very popular Speed Atlas. Thus the misnomer of ‘Miniature Speed’ came
into being. There were sixty-three maps in the Atlas, arranged in the order of Speed’s Theatre and entitled:
‘England Wales Scotland and Ireland Described and Abridged With ye Historie Relation of things worthy
memory from a farr larger Voulume 1627 And are to bee sould by Georg Humble at ye Whithorse in
popeshead Alley’. English text was on the reverse of each map which described the preceding map on the
opposite plate. Thus the 1627 edition showed Rutlandshire as an individual county on plate twenty-nine. The
description on the back was of Huntingdonshire which would have appeared opposite the map of
Huntingdonshire on plate twenty-eight. The Rutland description to face its own map would be on the reverse
of Leicestershire on plate thirty.
It is clear that Humble’s clever marketing of the publication ensured its popularity. Indeed it continued to be
re-issued by other important publishers such as William Humble, Roger Rea and Bassett& Chiswell until 1676.
The Rutland map measures across the page six and one sixteenth inches with a top to bottom measurement
of three and three quarter inches. From the edges of the printed borders it measures four and three quarter
inches and three and five sixteenth inches respectively.
