Marsh's Library

In our latest blog post, recent Maddock Fellow Dan Rafiqi places Élie Bouhéreau’s diary within the wider tradition of seventeenth-century autobiographical writing. 🔗https://marshlibrary.ie/contextualising-elie-bouhereaus-diary/

Our unique manuscript of Handel's 'Messiah' will be featured in 'The Handel Scandal', a documentary by the Olivier-Award-winning operatic soprano Danielle de Niese on Sky Arts next Tuesday, 27th October at 8:00 pm, and on Now TV.

This coming Tuesday, 27 October, we will be hearing about this exciting project and exhibition @marshslibrary.bsky.social from all those involved at the London Palaeography Seminar - come and join us, in person or online (5:30pm GMT). Register here: ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Wednesdays in the Archive📜 It's a stormy day in Dublin today, but it's not quite as bad as January 1936, when a storm caused damages to the library's roof and outbuilding. This invoice records all the repairs that were required.

A woodcut from 'War with the Devil' (a sentiment many no doubt sympathise with) printed in 1737

In 'Danicorum Monumentorum' (1643) Danish poylmath Ole Worm provided the first systematic study of Scandinavian runestones. It includes this 10th century 'Jelling' stone erected by King Harald Bluetooth to the memory of his parents & to celebrate his conquest of Denmark & Norway.

For the last day of #mathsweek2026, take a closer look inside Opera Mathematica by Samuel Marolois, a fascinating 17th-century work exploring the connections between mathematics, art, architecture, and perspective. Which of these remarkable illustrations catches your eye the most?

Last night, on the 319th anniversary of the opening of Marsh’s Library, our new Medieval Manuscripts exhibition was launched by Dr Alison Ray of the @rialibrary.bsky.social , and The Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin. A fabulous birthday party for the Library!

Another one for #mathsweek2026! John Wilkins, in his book Mathematicall magick (1648), claims that if the gear in this illustration is turned one thousand times an hour, the sail at the top will be turned 1000000000000 times and move faster than a star. Impressive!

A fantastic evening helping to launch the new @marshslibrary.bsky.social medieval manuscript exhibition and catalogue by @laurajcleaver.bsky.social and crew! 📜🎉

A lovely evening @marshslibrary.bsky.social last night seeing old friends (human and manuscript). The exhibition of Medieval Manuscripts is now open 🎉 Do go and see this remarkable library if you’re in Dublin.

Wednesdays in the Archive📜 For #mathsweek2026, we are sharing an accounts book with a list of books purchased by Marsh's Library between 1935-1936. An asterisk beside a title means it was purchased to replace a missing book.

A lovely gilded acorn binding for this sunny autumn day. From our 17th century manuscript copy of Aristotle's physics.

A spider with a skull pattern on its abdomen, from Conrad Gessner's Historiae animalium (1621) #RareBooks #Specialcollections #Libraries #Halloween #Spiders #Woodcut

In 1671, Friedrich Martens travelled to Svalbard and around Greenland as ship's surgeon on the 'Jonas im Walfisch' or 'Jonah in the Whale'. These engravings of a whale & fin whale are from the diary he kept, first published in 1675, where he recorded the area's flora, fauna & whaling industry.

An early reader left many #manicules to indicate important sections in our 14th century medical #manuscript. It is on display in our current exhibition, 'The Medieval Manuscripts of Marsh's Library', open Tuesday to Friday 9.30am-5pm and Saturday 10am-5pm.

A doodle (possibly drawn from life?) in a 17th-century book of Virgil's poetry

Hand-coloured plum trees from a 16th century herbal #NationalTreeDay

Happy #InternationalTranslationDay! To celebrate, we're sharing an image of Brian Walton's Polyglot Bible. The impressive six volume work presents the Old Testament in nine languages: Hebrew, Aramaic (Targum), Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, Greek, and Latin.

Today is Michaelmas, a quarter day in the Irish calendar, and traditionally when rents were paid & contracts signed. It's also the last day to eat blackberries - after today, they belong to the Devil and will make you sick!

If you'd like US$2,500 to help with your archival research on 18th-century Ireland, you should apply to the Arch Elias Fellowship. Closing date 15 November: marshlibrary.ie/aceliasfello...

A quiet corner of Marsh’s Library, full of colour, flowers, and a little bit of calm. Sometimes the most beautiful details are just outside the books. 🌺

Title page of 'Ichabod: or, Five Groans of the Church', written by Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, in 1663.

Wednesdays in the Archive📜 Today, in celebration of our exhibition 'Gulliver 300' opening at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris last Friday, we are sharing correspondence from the last time we our books were exhibited in France.

This fifteenth-century volume gives instructions for the blessing of bells and for exorcising people who have been cursed. The instructions are written in red, with the words to be said in black. The volume will on display for our new exhibition The Medieval Manuscripts of Marsh's Library.

A woodcut initial from a psalter printed 502 years ago in London

Our busiest ever @culturenightdub.bsky.social saw people queuing around the corner on to Kevin Street and a total of 813 visitors

In our latest blogpost, recent Maddock Fellow Dr Stewart Duncan discusses anti-Spinoza literature in the Edward Stillingfleet collection. marshlibrary.ie/stillingflee...

Join us this Friday, 18 September, for a free guided tour of Ireland's oldest public library. Tours run every 15 minutes from 5:30-8:45pm. No booking required. culturenight.ie/event/cultur... #CultureNight2026 #CultureNight #CultureNightDublin

Wednesdays in the Archive📜 In 1918, Marsh's Library paid £1 17s 6d to repair bullet holes in the doors of the old reading room. Other bullet holes in the books and bookcases were not repaired and can still be seen today. Look out for them when you visit the library!

Waste not! The blank space at the back of a 13th century Bible provided a perfect place for someone to practice their letters. The text to the left is a transcript of a papal bull granted to Dominican Order in 1227.

It is beginning to feel autumnal here in Dublin 🍂 The poet Edmund Spenser captures the mood perfectly in The Shepheard's Calender (1579): And nowe the Westerne wind bloweth sore, That nowe is in his chiefe souereigntee, Beating the withered leafe from the tree.

A chart of the seven legendary kings of Rome, beginning with Romulus. From Ortelius's Theatrum orbis terrarum.

Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) created this great brass globe to record the precise position of over 1000 stars he observed from his observatory at Uraniborg. Kepler used Brahe's observational data in formulating his laws of planetary motion. From Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, 1602.

A keening women, or funeral mourner, from 'A week at Killarney' printed in London in 1858. In their description of a keener, authors Anna Maria & Samuel Carter Hall say 'her eyes were deep-set greys, peculiar to the country'.

A couple of 17th century limp vellum Spanish bindings. The title in large letters on the spine is typically Iberian. They cover Historica relación del Reyno de Chile, 1648 and Descripcion breve del monasterio de S. Lorenzo el Real del Escorial, 1657.

Sea monsters in Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum orbis terrarum. Be careful sailing near Tiguex!

Marsh's Library will be closed to visitors from September 5th-14th as we prepare for our new exhibition. We will reopen on September 15th at 9:30am and look forward to welcoming you back.

This week is the last chance to see our exhibition 'Gulliver 300', celebrating the 300th anniversary of the publication of Jonathan Swift's masterpiece. Catch it before it closes on Friday 4th September, and sets off on its travels to the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris!

The beautiful watermark on a letter to our librarian in 1943 tells us the paper was made in Swift Brook paper mills, founded in 1785 in Saggart, Co. Dublin. They produced paper for bank notes, stamps, and also the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, before finally closing in 1972.

A magnified transection of a thistle stalk by Nehemiah Grew. Grew was one of the first scientists to use a microscope to study the internal structure of plants.

The very lovely Sandi Toksvig visited our library early in the summer, and we're delighted to see the promo video for her forthcoming shows about Irish literature for Britain's Channel 4 on the 3rd and 10th of September. vimeo.com/1210556076?s... #Sandi’sIreland #Corneliastreetproductions #Channel4

The names of Robert and Elizabeth Cotton are inscribed at the front of Commentarius brevis rerum in orbe gestaru (1586). Strangely, they appear to be written in a child's hand.

16th century decorated initials spelling out the name of our founder: Narcissus Marsh

A glimpse of a fragment of a medieval music manuscript, recycled in a 16th century binding, it's vellum lending strength as a guard. It's only a few notes, but someone might recognise it?