O’DONOVAN, John. Ed. by. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Down

ORDNANCE SURVEY LETTERS

O’DONOVAN, John. Ed. by. Letters Containing Information Relative to the Antiquities of the County of Down. Collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1834. With map. Bray: O’Flanagan, 1927. First edition. pp. Quarto. [iv], iv, 124. Green cloth, title in gilt on spine. Previous owner’s signature and bookplate on front free endpaper. Ticket of M. Caldwell Bookbinder, South Frederick Street, Dublin on front pastedown. Only 75 copies were printed for each County. A very good copy. In 1829 our greatest antiquary, John O’Donovan was appointed to the staff of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland under George Petrie, a position left vacant on the death of Edward O’Reilly. It was his job to examine the ancient Irish manuscripts and records for the purpose of determining the nomenclature to be used on the maps. He travelled the length and breadth of Ireland and collected every scrap of information relative to the historic buildings and sites, often from the local historians and seanachies. This he recorded in a series of letters. These were published in 1927 in an edition of 75 copies for each of the counties surveyed.