Friday, February 8, 2013

The Kingdome of Irland Devided into severall Provinces and the againe devided into Counties Newly described. (1676)

As with most contemporary maps of Ireland, this map by John Speed while largely accurate in details such as lakes, rivers, and major settlements, has the coastline of Connacht truncated. Although published in 1676 it seems this map originally dates from 1610 which makes sense since Speed was long dead by '76. The map is chockful of lovely little details like cherubs and sea monsters. The most interesting aspect of this map in my opinion is the in-set illustrations depicting three categories of Irish denizen at the time.

Here you have the Gentleman and Gentlewoman of Ireland, top of the pile of course.

 Then you have the middle management types, the Civill Irish woman and man.
And then you have the Wilde Irish man and woman. For reasons unclear to me the Wilde Irish man appears to be wearing Wonderwoman's boots.

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