The Description of Ireland in 1598, and the State Thereof as it is at Present in Anno 1598, now for the First Time Published from a MS presented in Clongowes-Wood College, with Copious Notes and Illustrations by Edmund Hogan. Dublin: M.H. Gill, 1878. First Edition. Pp xii, 382. Small folio. Publisher’s brown cloth boards, decorated in blind; new title label to spine, and new endpapers. A nice bright copy.

Edmund Ignatius Hogan (1831-1917), born in Co. Cork, was an Irish historian, priest and Irish-language scholar.

Based on an unpublished manuscript from the archives in Rome the text gives a brief description of Irish counties and the principle families inhabiting them. Hogan’s accompanying notes offer an impressive amount of geographical, historical and genealogical information.