This superbly
hand coloured original antique map
of the ancient region of Udrone comprising parts of
Carlow and Kilkenny in SE Ireland was
published in the 1658 Spanish edition of Joan Blaeu's Atlas
Novus.
These maps are some of the best I have seen to date, the
original colouring is superb and the paper is thick and
exceptionally clean.
Blaeu's fifth map of Ireland seems a strangely
remote choice of location for the great cartographer to
have singled out for special treatment. For the reasons
why this map was engraved in the first place one must go
back to power-struggles between the leading Anglo-Irish
families in Elizabethan Ireland.
The Butlers wars of the 1560s and 1570s were the
struggles between the Fitzgerald's (Earls of Desmond)
and the Butlers (Earls of Ormonde) who fought what is
thought to have been the last privately pitched battle
in the British Isles at Affane in Waterford in 1565.
As if matters were not complicated and volatile enough
an English adventurer called Sir Peter Carew (1514-75)
arrived on the scene. Carew was a man with a
fascinatingly chequered career (he was imprisoned in the
Tower of London and later Constable of it!), whose
claims to the Barony of Idrone were upheld at Dublin
Castle, the seat of English power in Ireland. He also
claimed ancient title to half of Cork and found himself
at war with both Desmond and Butler. These events seem
to have caught Mercators - the original publisher of
this map - attention in Antwerp and this detailed map of
a small corner of Ireland was engraved and included fin
most 16th & 17th century sets of Irish maps.
(Ref: Koeman; Tooley; M&B)
General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy
Paper color: - White
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, pink, red, blue, green
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21in x 12 1/2in (535mm x 320mm)
Plate size: - 15 1/2in x 10in (395mm x 255mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
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