HOLINSHED, Raphaell. Holinshed’s Irish Chronicle. The Historie of Irelande from the first inhabitation thereof, unto the yeare 1509. Collected by Raphaell Holinshed, & continued till the yeare 1547 by Richarde Stanyhurst. Edited by Liam Miller and Eileen Power with the cancels restored and the woodcut illustrations of the first edition.

Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1979. Folio. pp. xxiv, 363. Brown cloth, title in gilt on spine. Edition limited to 850 copies. From the library of John Bradley with his bookplate. Top edge reddish-brown. A fine copy in lightly frayed dust jacket. With slipcase.

Holinshed’s ‘Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland’, first printed in the year 1577, is one of the great historical reference-books of the sixteenth century. Leading historians of the day assisted Holinshed in the massive undertaking of editing, assembling, and expanding existing historical and topographical works. The ‘learned Gentleman, Maister Richard Stanyhurst’ compiled the ‘Description of Ireland’. He was the son of James Stanyhurst, the Recorder of Dublin, and a friend and collaborator of the English Jesuit, Edmund Campion. When the first edition was in preparation, the Privy Council objected to certain passages, and this resulted in a number of cancelled leaves. The original texts have been restored in this edition and are printed as appendices. A unique feature of this publication is the remarkable series of woodcuts throughout the text, and the present volume is further enhanced by the inclusion of two woodcuts from the cancelled leaves.

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