A beautiful Elizabethan tapestry map missing for centuries will go on display at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in January, completing an extraordinary picture of the Midlands in the time of William Shakespeare.

The long-lost map was discovered last year and bought by the Bodleian at auction. The tapestry, measuring 6ft by 4ft (1.82 by 1.22 metres), is the remnant from one of four huge tapestry maps woven from wool and silk in the late 16th century and depicting Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. The Bodleian already has two of these maps and a third is in the Warwickshire Museum, but the fourth map was thought to have been lost for ever.

The missing piece of the jigsaw is believed to have been used at one time as a fireguard in a private house. The library bought the map for £100,000 with the help of the Art Fund, charities and private donors.

The tapestry map looks east, rather than north, and shows southern Gloucestershire in about 1590, as well as parts of Somerset, Wiltshire and Monmouthshire. It depicts hunting grounds, forests, hills and castles, but no roads. Geographically, the map extends from what are now the northern suburbs of Bristol in the south west, or bottom right-hand corner, to just beyond Stroud in the north east, or top left. The Forest of Dean, the Severn Estuary and Chepstow appear in the foreground.

The combined maps, which would once have covered some 80 sq ft of wall space, offer a unique representation of the countryside from a time when modern mapmaking was in its infancy. The tapestry weavers are believed to have used several sources for the maps, which may be the nearest thing we will ever have to an aerial colour picture of the landscape that Shakespeare knew.

The maps were commissioned by Ralph Sheldon, a wealthy landowner, to hang in his home at Weston, Warwickshire, a few miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon. Apart from their beauty and draught-excluding capabilities, the maps may have had another, more secret purpose.

The Sheldon family were fervently Roman Catholic, and historians have noted that large houses belonging to fellow Catholic families feature predominantly in the maps. At a time of intense religious upheaval, the maps may have also represented potential escape routes and safe houses. Some scholars argue that Shakespeare may have been a secret Catholic.

“The Armada had been only a few years earlier,” observed Richard Ovenden, keeper of special collections at the Bodleian Library. “Perhaps the Sheldons were hedging their bets.”

The Sheldon family sent Richard Hyckes, a weaver, to Flanders to learn the complicated art of tapestry making. Hyckes returned with a group of trained Flemish tapestry makers. The work was painstaking and slow. It would have taken a team of four weavers at least ten months to complete a single tapestry.

The tapestry maps are extraordinarily detailed, reflecting the growing interest in British geography and cartography. One contrast with today’s map of the same area is the extent of forests that covered Middle England. This was the countryside seen through the eyes of the landed gentry. “The description is clear. This is not an imaginary landscape,” Mr Ovenden said. “This is the beginning of a modern sense of depicting the environment. It also gives us a real mental picture of a Catholic landowner in Tudor times.”

The use of tapestry to represent geographical reality was unprecedented in England. “It is so new that neighbours and friends and relatives would have been shocked by the novelty, the accuracy, the grand sweep of England laid out on a huge scale in these bright colours,” Mr Ovenden said.

Editor's choice

• Exclusive: Listen to AC/DC's Black Ice
• Burning Bush with W
• Boy George on sex, drugs and Amy Winehouse