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Lot 61

AFTER GIOVANNI BATTISTA BOAZIO (BAPTISTA BOAZIO) (fl. 1588-1606) 'Irelande'

a highly decorative map of Ireland, with dedication to "my Gratious Soveraigne Elizabeth by the grace of God, of Englande, Fraunce and Irelande Queene Defendresse of the true Christian Faith", 52cm x 82cm

Condition Report: click here
Estimate: £500 - £1,000
Bidding ended. Lot is unsold.

Undoubtedly an example of accomplished craftsmanship, its lavish ornamental flourish, the purely fictional character of some of the map's topographical details and the extravagant use of colour, are all features that suggest that precise geographical information was not the map's principal objective. Both Boazio, the cartographer, and Elstrack, his engraver, are doubly present on the map: while two cartouches bearing their names signal directly their claim to authorship, a more imaginative but deeply colonial gesture transforms them into the toponyms Baptiste's Rock (off the Antrim Coast) and Elstrake's Isle (south-west of Tyrconnell). This inventive way of writing cartographer and engraver into Ireland's geography has led one commentator to suggest that the map "is not a good one, even by contemporary standards: obsolete before it was published . . . its geographical content is badly garbled and in places totally fictitious." Such a view, though factually correct, implicitly assumes that the gradual increase of cartographic accuracy should be seen as the guiding principle of map history. But what makes Boazio's map such an important example of the way 16th century Englishmen made spatial sense of the intractable and "barbarous" Irish territory is precisely its value as a decorative image of Ireland's geography fluctuating between fact and fiction. Its purpose was not accuracy but opulent display. Boazio's and Elstrack's names function as a kind of geographical signature, an eccentric gesture perhaps, but one that capitalises on Ireland's status as the property of those that give it visual and verbal presence in maps and texts. 

See Boazio, Baptista, and R. Dunlop, “Sixteenth-Century Maps of Ireland.”, The English Historical Review, no. 78 (1905): 309–37.

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The comment made by our consultant was that the colours are not 19th century and are most likely to be contemporary to the piece. Some discolouration to the paper as to be expected with age. Some losses to the bottom left and down the centre where the two pieces of paper are split.

Further comments 19/04/22

The two sheets forming this map are slightly mis-aligned, as seen at the top of the map with the Irelande title.

There is a small horizontal tear (approx 1.5cm) to the lower right side margin and there are some horizontal abrasions to the lower left across the dedication rectangle. and also directly below the wording 'the middle grounds'. 

Overall the map exhibits slightly staining/sun damage. 

The frame is later and papered to the reverse.

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