Skip to main content

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Menu Search

Programme: The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts Symposium

A detail of an illuminated initial featuring a wild boar and two lionesses from the 12th century West Dereham Bible TCD MS 51, f.93v.

30th November – 1st December 2023

Trinity Long Room Hub

Note: Due to popular demand we have released one final small batch of tickets – sign up here!

Thursday 30th November

All events will take place in the Trinity Long Room Hub unless otherwise stated.

14.00-15.00 Registration

15.00-15.10 Welcome address

Session 1: The Manuscripts for Medieval Studies Project; 15.10-16.20

15.10-15.40 Estelle Gittins (Curatorial lead) and Dr Claire McNulty (Postdoctoral Research Fellow): Introduction to the Project and Overview of Manuscripts Digitised. 

15.40-15.55 Angelica Anchisi: Conservator, TCD. Paper: ‘Conserving Medieval Manuscripts in the Library’s Collection’. 

15.55-16.10 Caroline Harding: Senior Digital Photographer, TCD. Paper: ‘The Perks of Digitising Medieval Manuscripts: Reflections on Strategy, Challenges and Techniques’.

16.10-16.20 Questions & Contingency

16.20-16.40 Tea & Coffee

16.40-17.20 Keynote – Professor James Clark: Professor of History, Exeter. Paper: ‘The Miracles of Matthew Paris‘.

Continue reading “Programme: The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts Symposium”

Registration Now Open! The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts Symposium: 30th Nov – 1st Dec 2023

The building of St Albans Church with six figures. Colours are red, green, beige, and blue. Illustration from TCD MS 177 The Book of St Albans by Matthew Paris, f. 60r.

Trinity College Dublin

Registration Now Open!!! Join us from 30th November – 1st December 2023 for ‘The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts’ Symposium at Trinity College Dublin. The event aims to showcase manuscripts digitised as part of the ‘Manuscripts for Medieval Studies’ Project, supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Register here to attend.

Enjoy a sneak peek of our draft programme below. 

Continue reading “Registration Now Open! The Many Lives of Medieval Manuscripts Symposium: 30th Nov – 1st Dec 2023”

A Manuscript and a Meeting Point: TCD MS 667 (Part 2)

By Conor McDonough OP

In the first part of this post, I shared something of the contents of TCD MS 667, and its value as a witness to the cultural hybridity of the activity of friars in medieval Ireland, but I never explained what might lead one to locate it in the Dominican priory in Limerick. In fact, for about a century, it was thought of as a Franciscan, not Dominican, manuscript, and located usually in Co. Clare, rather than the town of Limerick. What changed all this?

Continue reading “A Manuscript and a Meeting Point: TCD MS 667 (Part 2)”

A Manuscript and a Meeting Point: TCD MS 667 (Part 1)

By Conor McDonough OP

Among the many religious communities in the medieval town of Limerick was St Saviour’s Priory, home to the Friars Preachers or Dominicans. Right at the northern edge of Englishtown, it was founded in 1227 under the joint patronage of Gaelic aristocrat, Donncha Cairbreach Ó Briain, and the English crown.

Like any community of friars, St Saviour’s was not a stand-alone entity, but a node in an international network of friars, through which texts, ideas, stories, and friars themselves travelled with ease across national and ethnic boundaries. Like communities of friars everywhere, the founding aim of St Saviour’s was to preach the Gospel at a popular level, in an engaging and entertaining fashion, not only to those who worshipped in their church, but throughout the hinterland.

Continue reading “A Manuscript and a Meeting Point: TCD MS 667 (Part 1)”