[Stafford, Thomas] Carew, Sir George / O’Grady, Standish.

Pacata Hibernia. Or A History of the Wars in Ireland during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Especially within the Province of Munster under the Government of Sir George Carew and compiled by his Direction and Appointment. Edited and with an Introduction and Notes by Standish O’Grady. With Portraits, Maps and Plans. [This late 19th century version of the Pacata Hibernia is the so-called Fourth Edition, with a new impression of the titlepage of the first edition from 1633 and excellent reproductions of the original plates].

Limited Edition: No.252 of only five hundred copies printed. Two Volumes (complete set). London, Downey & Co. Limited, 1896. Octavo. Volume I: Frontispiece – Portrait of Sir George Carew, XXII, 302 pages with 14 illustrations (maps etc.) / Volume II – Volume II: Frontispiece – Portrait of Donnell O’Sulevan Beare [O’Sullivan Bere], XI, 357 pages with 8 illustrations (maps etc.). Original red cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Both Volumes in protective collector’s mylar. Excellent condition with only minor signs of external wear. Both bindings firm and all illustrations in excellent condition.

Volume I includes: Portrait of Sir George Carew / A Map of Munster (Large Folding Map) / Earl of Ormond / Rory Ogne / Map of the Earl of Ormond taken prisoner / Map of Youghal / Map of Cahir Castle / Map of Askeaton Castle / Map of Glin Castle / Map of Carrickfoyle Castle / Map of Castle Mayne / Map of Limerick Castle / Map of Limerick / Map of the Siege of Kinsale /

Volume II includes: Donnell O’Sulevan Beare [sic] [Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare, Prince of Beare, 1st Count of Berehaven], Map of the Kingdom of Ireland divided into four provinces / Map of Castleny Park / Map of the Fort of Haulbowlin / Map of Cork / Map of the Army on the Beare Country [Beara] / Map of the Siege of Dunboy / Map of Muskerry / Turlough Lynagh //

Pacata Hibernia is of very great value, and is not unfamiliar to earnest students of Irish history. It deals entirely with the province of Munster, and embraces a period of three years. It commences with the joint entrance of Lord Monntjoy upon the Viceroyalty of Ireland and Sir George Carew upon the Presidency of Munster in 1600, and ends with the suppression in 1603 of the Munster insurrection, which was caused by the landing of the Spaniards at Kinsale. “But its atmosphere,” as its latest editor says, “unlike that of any modern book treating of the times, is the atmosphere of the age ; in every sentence we breathe the air of the six- teenth century ; we are in the presence of actualities, face to face with real and actual men, can almost hear them speak, and feel around us the play of the passions and the working of ideas and purposes so characteristic of that age, so foreign to our own. Such an experience must bring enlightenment. Pacata Hibernia, once well read, is certain to produce a lasting effect upon the mind of the reader. The book deals with the stormy conclusion of a stormy century, the lurid sunset of one of the wildest epochs in our history.” Besides, the recent revelations of the State Papers give a fresh importance to such old histories as this. Mr. Standish O’Grady brings to the editing of the narrative knowledge based on these Papers and on other researches. The results of his work are to be found in very full and elucidatory notes and in a preface, which, although here and there floridly eloquent, is an important contribution to Irish history.

Mr. O’Grady is too confident, perhaps, that Thomas Stafford, who gave himself forth as but the editor of Pacata Hibernia, was also its author. (Source: Article in “The Spectator”, 22 May, 1897, page 20)

• Keywords: Catalogue Irish History One – Ireland in Romantic & Historical Illustration · Catalogue Irish History Two – Origins of Irish Identity · Ireland in Historical Illustration · Ireland in Romantic Illustration · Irish History – Rare · Pacata Hibernia · Travel Ireland – Rare
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 100255AB

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