LODGE, John. Ed by. Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica: or A Select Collection of State Papers; consisting of Royal Instructions, Directions, Dispatches, and Letters. To which are added, some Historical Tracts. The whole illustrating and opening the Political Systems of the Chief Governors and Government of Ireland, during the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth, James the First, and Charles the First.

Two volumes. Dublin: Printed by David Hay, at the King’s Arms, in Parliament Street, 1772. First edition. Octavo. pp. (1) xi, 516, (2) vii, 528, 570. Contemporary full calf (volume one), matching full calf (volume two), titled in gilt on double letterpieces. Ex lib with stamp on half-title of volume one. A near fine fresh copy.

ESTC N6505. Not in Bradshaw. Gilbert 204 (defective copy).
An important eighteenth-century collection of Irish state papers and political correspondence, edited by the noted historian and archivist John Lodge. Compiled from official manuscripts and governmental records, Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica provides invaluable insight into the administration of Ireland under the Tudor and early Stuart monarchs, including the reigns of Elizabeth I, James VI and I, and Charles I. The work contains a wealth of original material relating to plantation policy, military affairs, governance, taxation, and the relationship between Dublin Castle and Westminster during one of the most formative periods in Irish political history.
Published in Dublin in 1772, the work remains one of the cornerstone documentary sources for historians of early modern Ireland. There is a thirty-five page survey of the Half-Barony of Rathdown in the County of Dublin, by order of Charles Fleetwood, Lord Deputy, dated October 4th, 1654, at the end of volume two. Listed are proprietor’s name and his qualification, denominations of land, acres, land profitable and unprofitable, value.

[CAT 164]