Ireland - South of Ireland: Munster, Southern Leinster, Galway; Gerard Mercator - Sud de l'Irlande - Gravure sur cuivre, coloris d'époque - Gerard Mercator - 1621-1650

Old copper-engraved map of southern Ireland, hand-enhanced by Mercator, published in 1633 in the Mercator-Hondius atlas.

It shows the southern half of the island, from Galway Bay to the coast of Wexford. The relief is depicted with small hills, forests are represented by trees, and the waterways are named. The boundaries of counties and lordships are highlighted with coloring in yellow, pink, green and orange.
The title Irlandiae Regnum is inscribed in a cartouche with rollers and scrolls, adorned with two lion masks.

At sea appear the Vergivius Oceanus and the Saint George’s Channel, with three sandbanks drawn with hatchings. Three numbered legends list islands and ports: those of the Shannon estuary, those of Bantry Bay, and those of the Kilkenny sector. The scale is indicated in Irish miles, at the top left.

The map is accompanied by the French text of the “Third Table of Ireland” (pages 93 and 96), devoted to Connacht and Meath.

- Dimensions: on sheet: 56 x 47.5 cm; on the map plate: 46.9 x 35.3 cm
- Condition: Very good overall for a map of this age. Presence of a central vertical crease and light soiling. See photos for more details.

Atlas Mercator-Hondius
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The atlas called “Mercator-Hondius” reprises the work of Gerard Mercator, whose copper plates were bought back by Jodocus Hondius in 1604. This French edition of 1633 is signed by his son Henricus Hondius and his son-in-law Joannes Janssonius, who added new maps to it.

Gerard Mercator
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Flemish geographer, mathematician, and cartographer, born in Rupelmonde in 1512 and died in Duisburg in 1594. He studied in Leuven. He is known for his terrestrial and celestial globes, and for his 1569 world map in a cylindrical projection, the so-called “Mercator projection.” Residing in Duisburg from 1552, he prepared a large collection of maps there. His son Rumold published the complete atlas in 1595, a year after his death. Jodocus Hondius acquired the copper plates in 1604 and published many editions. Those from the 1630s were issued in Amsterdam by his heirs.