Map Room Gallery
The Map Room includes printed and manuscript maps, topographical maps as well as nautical charts.
The first printed maps of Ireland appeared in 1572, published in Amsterdam and Venice completely independently of one another. The Venetian map by Thomas Porcacchi appeared in an 'isolario', an atlas of islands that was the fasion of the day in Venice and simply engraved from a portolan chart that Porcahhi had to hand. Ortelius' map, with it's combination of English, Irish and Latin, is evidently drawn from variety of charts and plantation maps and the work of the Elizabethan map maker, Robert Lythe, shines through.
Chart of Ireland's southern coast from Thresoor Der Zeevaert by Lucas Waghenaer. Waghenaer produced the world's first atlas of sea charts in 1584 and an English translation, The Mariner's Mirror, became so popular that all sea atlases were known as 'waggoners' for the next century. Many of the maps were the result of Waghenaer's own observations and this chart depicts what was of interest to Dutch merchant sea captains, the entrances to the estuaries where merchants could bargain for fish.
This remarkable map by Baptista Boazio appeared in the final and rarest edition of Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum in 1612. The map originally appeared in print in 1599 and was copied in manuscript for official purposes. Ulster, in particular, is depicted quite differently from the earlier work of Ortelius John Speed's unknown yet highly knowledgable source.
One of 26 maps made under the supervision of Josias Bodley for the plantation of Ulster, 1609-10. The map shows the boundaries of ballyboes, although much further information is also given. See a full article on this series by John H. Andrews: The Maps of the Escheated Counties of Ulster, 1609-10, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, Vol. 74 (1974), pp. 133-170.
A magnificent, coloured manuscript map made for William Petty's Down Survey of Ireland in 1658. The title cartouche s intended to convey something about the region depicted, in this case it is clearly the fisheries. The map is from the second of two volumes, Hibernia Regnum, made for Petty for an unrealised atlas of Ireland at barony level. The manuscript was captured by a French privateer in 1709 when Petty's descendants were having the family's belongings shipped from Dublin to Bowood House, in England. When the maps were unearthed in the Royal Library in France in the 1780s, King Louis XVI announced that he was happy to do so, but advised not to by his librarian. The advice was that once his majesty began returning stolen items, there would be little of value left in his library.
This map was the first map of Ireland produced by Sir William Petty following the completion of the Down Survey of Ireland for Oliver Cromwell. It is the first 'modern' outline and the most influential cartographic representation of Ireland ever produced. It was intended to be the title page for the first county atlas of Ireland, and it is possible that Petty was going to publish his c200 barony maps as well. Petty had this map, and the county sheets, engraved in Amsterdam and was unhappy with the quality so the project floundered. This proof copy of the atlas languished in Dublin for a time before it was captured by French provateers in 1709, together with Petty's personal copy of the barony maps of the Down Survey, and taken to Paris where they became part of the Royal Collection. The entire atlas can be viewed in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.
Street plan of Drogheda town and harbour with a view of the surrounding landscapre to the norht. In addition, there are several engraved elevations of principal buildings that can also be located on the street plan.
Pocket' street plan of Cork City including the outlines of main buildings and places of interest.
Map number 46 from the Dublin City Surveyors collection. The map is keyed to a list of inhabitants indicating that there was a concentration of tanneries next to the city's water course. For more information on this collection see Mary Clarke, The Book of Maps of the Dublin City Surveyors 1695-1827 (Dublin Corporation, 1983).
Sheet 11 of Larkin's monumental 16 sheet map of County Galway, some four metres across when joined. Produced for the Galway Grand Jury, Larkin's map is the high point of private cartography in Ireland (the Ordnance Survey of Ireland began a few years later). Only a few were produced and the map is now very rare. It is a priceless source for information abut Galway immediately before the famine as Neele's surveyors recorded the location of every house they found to a high degree of acuracy. All 16 sheets are in the Virtual Treasury of Ireland, alongside William Bald's equally impressive map of County Mayo.
A facinating chart of the entrance to Dublin harbour made shortly after the construction of the North and South Bull Walls. The original coastline of Dublin Bay is still clearly evident and the purpose of the survey was to make new soundings to show the safest passage for ships to enter the harbour given recent changes to the shoreline caused by the construction of the protective walls. The map was published privately by Bligh in London. This is the same Captain Bligh of the HMS Bounty, who suffered the mutiny of his crew in the South Pacific in 1789.
Admiralty chart in two plates, one showing the North Entance to Achill Sound, and one showing the South Entrance.
