Petty, Sir William (1623-1687).

folio (432 x 317mm.), no text, illustration: portrait frontispiece of Petty engraved by Edwin Sandys, double-page engraved frontispiece incorporating contents list (the second state with the wording "Cum Privilegio Regis" added), and 37 engraved maps on 36 double-page or folding sheets, fine dark impressions, binding: contemporary reversed calf, panelled in blind, portrait browned and slightly frayed, binding slightly rubbed

Shirley, British Library T.PETTY-1b

first edition of the first atlas of ireland.

In 1685 the first atlas of Ireland, to match Saxton's Atlas of England and Wales, was published by Sir William Petty as Hiberniae delineatio, the result of a highly organized and detailed survey (the "Down" survey) carried out in the years following 1655. Re-issued in miniature form soon afterwards by Francis Lamb, Petty's atlas was widely used as the basis for practically all maps of Ireland produced by English, French, Dutch and German publishers in the following century.