IRELAND – Baptista Boazio] Irlandiae Accurata Descripto 1609 by Baptista Boazio. Finely engraved map of Ireland of considerable interest. Coloured. The towns as usual in red, the woods in green, and the county boundaries in various tints. The north is to the right, and an ornamental border round the map takes the place of graduations for latitude and longitude. Depicted are the provinces, counties, cities, towns, rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, islands, bays, headlands, forts, castles, ecclesiastical centres, and clans with their location. There are two ships, a fisherman in a boat and three monsters on the seas. Royal coat of arms and several cartouches with title, description, glossary, and scale.

Dublin: De Burca, 1990. Size 810mm x 620mm. In fine condition. It bears six decorative cartouches containing long inscriptions. These inform us among other things that the map was ‘diligently collected & partly surveyed by Baptista Boazio’; and there is a dedication to Queen Elizabeth, ending with the naïve rhyme ‘wherin your Highness may distinctly see what Havens, Rockes, sandes, or Townes, in Ireland be’.
One of the most attractive, decorative, and historically interesting maps of Ireland. Splendidly coloured. The original editions are extremely rare, and we are grateful to Andrew Bonar Law and his daughter, Charlotte of The Neptune Gallery, who supplied us with their copy for our reprint. Decorative map of Ireland with north oriented to the right. The Island is divided into the four provinces of Ulster, Connaught, Leinster and Munster with counties delineated by dotted line. It is filled with pictorial depictions of the forests and topography and the location of cities, towns and major landowners. A table to the left deciphers the Irish names relating to geographical features and residents, noting that the presence of O before a name indicates Caput familiae, or the head of the family, and Mc before a name indicates a Territorium fillii Satrapae, a region dominated by one related family. The sea is teeming with sea monsters and a pair of elegantly engraved ships, one of them aflame. A man in a curragh waving a trident is shown in the upper right near the dedication cartouche, and three other elaborate strapwork cartouches further adorn the map. Boazio’s map of Ireland is one of the maps added by Joannes Baptista Vrients when he took over the publication of Ortelius’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum after the latter’s death in 1598.
[Cat 160]