- Title - A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland
- Cartographer/Author - Samuel Lewis
- Date - 1837
- Size - 230mm x 290mm(large 4to L) Folding Map 385mm x 495mm
- Condition - Very Good. Usual foxing on first couple of pages but overall contents very good. All maps present in the atlas. Some staining on the folding map, but presentable none the less. Recently re-backed in calf, with gilt lettering. Cloth covered boards.
Attractive Complete Set of Lewis Ireland
An attractively bound set of Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, including the atlas volume with 32 engraved county maps and a large folding map of Ireland.
SAMUEL LEWIS, was an eminent English draughtsman, cartographer and publisher, who traded under the name S.Lewis & Co. Lewis is best known in Ireland for his "Topographical Dictionary of Ireland" which was first published in 1837.
In the '....Dictionary...'. Lewis goes into great detail describing the various towns and villages around the country, civil and religious parishes are identified, churches described, industries explained etc. It is an invaluable tool to the researcher, genealogist, or local history enthusiast. Some of the entries run to only a few lines long but others give a detailed history and geography of the particular area with descriptions of the daily life of the people, including some anecdotes and local superstitions, etc.
To complement his Topographical Dictionary, Lewis also issued a detailed and well produced atlas, "Lewis' Atlas Comprising the Counties of Ireland", which contained thirty two attractive county maps and a large general map of Ireland. The complete atlas is now scarce and the maps are now more commonly found in their individual states, having being "broken" from the atlas.
The maps were drawn by R.Creighton and engraved by John Dower. Lewis' work was highly regarded by his contemporaries and he worked with many of the leading British cartographers and cartographic publishers of the time, including, Arrowsmith, Matthew Carey, Pinkerton, Starling, and J. & C. Walker.
The success of his Irish Topographical Dictionary meant that subsequent editions of the atlas were produced in 1839, '40, '46, '49, '50 and 1851. Although the volumes illustrated here are dated 1837, there were a couple of printings of the first edition, each of which are practically indistinguishable from each other, which is why it is difficult to cite true first editions.
An attractive complete set of Lewis' Ireland
Item ID: 15861-0
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