PETRIE, George. The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion; comprising an essay on the Origin and Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, which obtained the Gold Medal and Prize of the Royal Irish Academy.

With numerous illustrations. Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1845. Royal Octavo. Second edition. pp. xxi, 519. Modern Qtr. morocco over cloth boards. Title in gilt on spine. Occasional A very good. copy.

George Petrie (1789-1866), antiquary, was born in Dublin, the son of a portrait painter. Educated at Samuel Whyte's School in Grafton Street, and at the Art School of the Dublin Society, where he excelled and obtained a silver medal for figure drawing in 1805. When about nineteen he began to make excursions through the country in search of the picturesque, and to examine and take careful notes and sketches of antiquities. His remarks upon these were characterised by great acuteness of observation. For the present work he was awarded the Royal Irish Academy's Gold Medal. In the preface he states: ""The work contains not only the essay on the round towers, very much enlarged, but also distinct essays on our ancient stone churches and other ecclesiastical buildings of contemporaneous age with the round towers"". Petrie's conclusions regarding the Christian origin of these towers are now accepted by all leading Irish scholars and antiquarians. His sole interest lay in the preservation of Ireland's past culture, and he was devoid of any personal ambitions. His illustrations constitute a pictorial record of our ancient monuments, drawn with a meticulous accuracy that has never been surpassed.

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