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Author: Alex Alsemgeest

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Gems of the Fagel Collection: Athanasius Kircher’s Mundus subterraneus 1678

A copy of Athansasius Kircher’s Mundus subterraneus is without doubt one of the most beautiful books in the Fagel Collection. The colouring is of an exceptional quality, initials and captions are heightened with gold throughout the book. Samuel Paterson, who compiled the Fagel auction catalogue for Christie’s in 1802, described it ‘a matchless copy, illuminated in the style of the ancient missals’. Time to take a closer look at this copy. Why did the otherwise so modest Fagels own such a lavishly decorated book?

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Hidden Treatments or “what lies beneath”

Behind the scenes of a book conservation treatment in the Fagel Collection

by Angelica Anchisi

Conservation is an essential part of the project Unlocking the Fagel Collection. The twenty thousand volumes from the collection have been safely stored at the library since arriving at Trinity College in 1802 and many are still in good condition. However, now that all books are being catalogued and taken from the shelves, some older damages do come to light. Action is needed to keep these books available for consultation and perhaps in some years’ time also for digitisation. Conservator Angelica Anchisi treats a handful of books from the Fagel Collection every week and shows us what happens at the conservation department.

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Gems of the Fagel Collection: La Géométrie Pratique 1702

Anita Cooper

The Fagel Collection contains a copy of Alain Manesson-Mallet’s 1702 four volume work La géométrie pratique printed in Paris (shelf mark Fag.N.7.33-36). He was a French cartographer and fortifications engineer who served the armies of both France and Portugal and later taught mathematics in the court of Louis XIV.

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The Fagel Videos

A series of Videos about the Fagel Family and their Collections

The Library of Trinity College and the KB National Library of the Netherlands are collaborating on a video project about the Fagel family and their collections. The private library of the Fagels has been in Dublin since 1802, but traces of their working life and family history can still be found across The Hague.

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An edition of Divina Commedia in the Fagel Collection

The Fagel collection was assembled as a working library by several generations of the Fagel family, of whom successive members held high offices in the Dutch Republic throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The collection comprises books on a great variety of subjects, including literature in numerous languages. In that respect, it is hardly a surprise to come across an edition of Dante’s Divina Commedia in the library.

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