{"product_id":"old-map-of-connacht-in-1665-by-joan-blaeu-galway-sligo-mayo-leitrim-clare","title":"Old Map of Connacht in 1665 by Joan Blaeu - Galway, Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, Clare","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis map of Connacht was produced by the Amsterdam cartographer Joan Blaeu and published in 1665 as part of his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Sive Atlas Novus, one of the defining atlases of the Dutch Golden Age of cartography. Blaeu's workshop was renowned for the quality of its engraving and hand-colouring, producing maps that, while based on English and Irish surveys, were finished in a distinctly continental decorative style with ornamental cartouches and borders rarely seen on maps produced in Ireland or England during the same period. This sheet covers Connacht, the westernmost of Ireland's four historic provinces, recording its counties and settlements at a point when the province remained one of the least anglicised parts of Ireland, its landscape and society still largely shaped by Gaelic clan structures even as English administrative control was tightening elsewhere on the island.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGalway appears as the province's principal port and trading town, its merchant families long connected to trade with Spain and the wider Atlantic world. Sligo is shown on the north-western coast, a smaller but strategically placed harbour town, while Mayo, the largest of Connacht's counties, is recorded as sparsely settled, dominated by bog and mountain rather than farmland. Leitrim appears as a modest inland county, and Clare, though later associated with neighbouring Munster, is shown here still grouped within Connacht's boundaries as it was at the time this map was drawn. Together these five counties give a detailed picture of a province defined as much by its rugged Atlantic coastline as by the older Gaelic order still visible across its landscape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis map makes a fitting gift for anyone with family roots in Galway, Sligo or the wider west of Ireland, or for a collector drawn to the decorative Dutch cartography of the 17th century. Connacht buyers should note we also carry the province as mapped by John Speed in 1611 and by Sir William Petty in 1685: this 1665 Blaeu edition sits between the two, a mid-century continental view of Connacht quite distinct from either the earlier Jacobean or later Petty surveys. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact study print to a larger statement piece.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TheMapVault","offers":[{"title":"16x20 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856149835,"sku":"1167-16x20","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2 (42x60cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856182603,"sku":"1167-A2","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856215371,"sku":"1167-18x24","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856248139,"sku":"1167-50x70","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1 (60x84cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856280907,"sku":"1167-A1","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"24x32 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856313675,"sku":"1167-24x32","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856346443,"sku":"1167-70x100","price":50.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"75x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856379211,"sku":"1167-75x100","price":50.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0 (84x119cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":57829856411979,"sku":"1167-A0","price":55.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0907\/2456\/5323\/files\/SKU1167Mock004.jpg?v=1783701970","url":"https:\/\/www.themapvault.com\/products\/old-map-of-connacht-in-1665-by-joan-blaeu-galway-sligo-mayo-leitrim-clare","provider":"TheMapVault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}