The Province of Mounster by John Speed

Code: 53398

Author: John Speed

Date published: 1676

Bassett and Chiswell edition. Copper engraving with later hand colouring. Overall size : 54.4cms x 43.3cms. Image size : 505mm x 385mm. Inset plan of Corcke (Cork) bottom right and Lymericke (Limerick) top left. Title in decorative cartouche surmounted by the Irish harp top right and scale of miles with Irish surveyor atop, bottom left. English text verso describing the history and geography of the land on the right hand page and with an index on the left. Very good condition indeed apart from lacking the extreme top left margin tip. Until his late thirties, John Speed was a tailor by trade but his passion for history and map-making led him to gain a patron in Sir Fulke Greville, the poet and statesman, who found him a post in the customs and helped subsidize his map-making, giving him "full liberty to express the inclination of my mind"". He became aquainted with the publisher William Camden