Publications

A number of recent publications related to the library are described below. Enquiries about purchasing any of them should be directed to the publishers.

2001 was the 300th anniversary of the building of Marsh's Library. Various events and publications marked the occasion, and details of these are available.

Marsh's Library: All Graduates and Gentlemen

Marsh's Library: All Graduates and Gentlemen, a book by Muriel McCarthy, traces the history of the Library, and describes some of the prestigious printings in the Library.

The revised and enlarged second edition of the book was launched by An Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, on Monday 19th May 2003. The book tells the story of the founder's life and his determination to build a library for the Irish public and to provide it with the best and most up-to-date books. It recounts the establishment of the library, recalling its eccentric keepers and the many famous readers including Jonathan Swift, Charles Robert Maturin, Tom Moore, James Clarence Mangan, Bram Stoker and James Joyce. The book also describes the many rare and early printings in the library. Published by Four Courts Press, it is lavishly embellished with reproductions of engravings and woodcuts from the books in the collections and with other illustrations in both colour and black and white. It is available to order from Four Courts Press or in bookshops.

A Mirror on the World

Marsh's Library, A Mirror on the World: law, learning and libraries, 1650-1750 edited by Muriel McCarthy and Ann Simmons. Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2009.

This volume contains the papers presented at a conference to commemorate the 1707 act of parliament establishing Marsh's Library as 'a publick library for ever'. The conference took place in the library in October 2007 and the topics covered were ‘Parliament and Legislation’, ‘Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment’ and ‘Collectors and Collections’.

Contents

Jack P. Greene on the expanding British world at the turn of the seventeenth century; W.N. Osborough on 6 Anne, chapter 19: 'settling and preserving a publick library for ever'; David Hayton on Marsh and his contemporaries; Thomas O'Connor on aspects of the role of the Holy Office in Irish church affairs in the seventeenth century; Michael Brown on the location of learning in mid-eighteenth-century Ireland; C.D.A. Leighton on Philip Skelton and the Irish origins of the British Protestant Counter-Enlightenment; Ruth Whelan on memorials and martyrs in French Protestantism after the Revocation; Philip Benedict and Pierre-Olivier Léchot on the library of Elie Bouhéreau; Toby Barnard on Bishop John Stearne's collection of books and manuscripts; Elizabethanne Boran on writing history in seventeenth-century Ireland: Dudley Loftus' annals; Raymond Gillespie on manuscript collectors in the age of Marsh; Archibald Elias on Richard Helsham, Jonathan Swift, and the library of John Putland; Marie-Louise Legg on the Synge library catalogue of 1763.

See also the conference programme.

The Making of Marsh's Library

The Making of Marsh's Library: learning, politics and religion in Ireland, 1650-1750 edited by Muriel McCarthy and Ann Simmons. Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2004.

This volume contains the papers given at the conference on 'The Making of Marsh's Library', organised to celebrate the tercentenary of the library and to highlight the achievements of the founder, Archbishop Narcissus Marsh. The conference took place in the library from 4th to 6th October 2001.

For titles and authors of the papers see the conference programme.

The Decorated Bindings in Marsh's Library

The Decorated Bindings in Marsh's Library, Dublin, a book by Mirjam M. Foot, explains how books were bound by hand and describes in detail the bindings in the library organised by country of origin, chronologically and by type of decoration. The book is illustrated with photographs of the bindings. Published in 2004 by Ashgate and available to order online from the publishers.

Scholar Bishop: the Recollections and Diary of Narcissus Marsh

Scholar Bishop: the Recollections and Diary of Narcissus Marsh, 1638-1696, the letters and diaries of Marsh, edited by Raymond Gillespie. Published in 2003 by Cork University Press.