8vo. [16], 356, [6], 99pp, [3]. With an engraved frontispiece and a further five engraved plates. Title in red and black. Contemporary speckled calf, later expertly rebacked to style, ruled in gilt and blind. Boards Rubbed. Fore-edge of frontispiece shaved, scattered spotting.

The revised edition, greatly expanded from the first of 1654, of antiquary and historian Sir James Ware's (1594-1666) magnum opus; the most comprehensive account of Ireland, from its legendary origins to the conquest by the Normans, that had yet appeared. Ware details the roots of the leading Irish families, the meaning of Irish names, and reports on the superstitions and the natural phenomena of the country, and gives a knowledgeable description of Irish costume and the Irish ways of fighting. Particularly valuable are his accounts of the forms of government, the codes of law, and the systems of land tenure that prevailed up to the Norman invasion.