the Commonwealth and
Jacobite troubles (1650-90); of literary illustrations of the state of
Ireland under the Houses of Orange, Stuart, and Brunswick or Hanover,
and of modern days. The bibliographical writings of Sir James Ware are
usually quoted and consulted for the literature within his time, but
they have become almost obsolete. The two other works of reference for
amateurs and students are those by Charles Vallancey (_Collectanea de
Rebus Hibernicis_, 1786-1807, 7 vols.) and Charles O'Conor (_Rerum
Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres_, 1814-26, 4 vols.).

But we have to go to more recent authorities to discover that the
typographical productions of Ireland in the first decade of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries comprise a few books of the
greatest rarity and one or two of which no copies are at present
known. On the other hand, certain Elizabethan volumes, purporting to
have proceeded from Irish presses, are generally believed to have an
English origin, while others with German imprints of a later date
(second half of the seventeenth century) are absolutely proved to have
been clandestinely executed at home.

A very fair and comprehensive idea of the salient features in the
present series may be gained from the Grenville and Huth catalogues
and from Hazlitt's _Collections_ (General Index). Considerable stress
is laid by collectors on a large-paper copy with the _Decisions_
filled in in MS., the Memorandum, &c., of the _List of Claims_, 1701,
in connection with the Irish forfeitures. But in fact a copy of this
work is always available, when any one wants it, which is seldom
enough.

There was no _regular_ printing here till the beginning of the
seventeenth century, although one or two Marian tracts falsely purport
to have come from the Waterford press. Dublin had a printer, John
Frankton, who worked from 1601 to 1620 or thereabout, and produced
many books, tracts, and broadsheets, some not yet recovered; the city
also boasted a Society of Stationers in 1608, and many volumes
appeared at London "Printed for the Partners of the Irish Stock,"
referring to the Plantation of Ulster. The places in Ireland itself,
where the art of typography was pursued, were Dublin, Cork, Waterford,
Drogheda, Kilkenny, and Belfast (as in the section just dismissed).
But the rarest articles in the earlier series emanated from London or
from Continental presses, the writings of Nicholas French and
Cranford's _Tears of Ireland_, 1642