The Province of Mounster

Article description

Original antique copper engraving. Hand colored in outline and wash. Interesting map of the province of Munster with two inserted maps of Cork and Limerick. Munster is the south-western province of Ireland, consisting of the counties Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Cork, Waterford and Tipperary. John Speed ​​(1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologist and historian with roots in Cheshire. The son of a London commoner and tailor, he left his family's profession to take up the task of compiling and revising the history, topography and maps of the kingdoms of Great Britain to represent the union of their monarchies in the person of Kings James I and VI. He accomplished this with remarkable success, with the support and help of the leading antiquarians of his generation. He drew on the shire maps of Christopher Saxton, John Norden and others and improved them, being the first to insert the hundred boundaries into them, and he was the surveyor and originator of many of the town plans they contain. His work helped to define early modern concepts of British national identity. His biblical genealogies were also officially associated with the first edition of the King James Bible. He is one of the most famous English cartographers. (Wikipedia)