The Complutensian Polyglot Bible (Shelfmark: D.cc.12-17) was produced at the university in Alcalá de Henares, called in Latin Complutum, meaning ‘place where waters converge’ (in this case, three rivers). It is also known as the Spanish Polyglot or Ximénes’ Polyglot as the university was founded by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez (or Ximénes) de Cisneros and the work was financed and supervised by him. The title page of each volume bears his coat of arms.
Continue reading “The First Polyglot Bible – now on display”Gearing up for the Giro d’Italia – BLU display case goes pink!
[The bicycle] has circled the whole earth, invaded the classes and the masses, and it is hard to say where it is going to stop … [It] is going to have a big future, unless, we suppose, flying machines, or some other things like them, in the womb of the future, are to arise and evict it.
It is fitting that the race for the Maglia Rosa (Pink Jersey) begins in Belfast, home of John Boyd Dunlop, who in 1887 is credited with inventing the air-filled tube. The advantage over solid tyres was immense, leading Dunlop to patent his invention in 1888.
It made its sporting debut on May 18th 1889 at Queen’s College Sports Belfast with rider William Hume winning all four races. Dunlop’s patent was, however, successfully challenged in 1890. By then Dublin businessman and keen cyclist William H. du Cros had already taken full control of the invention, securing other patents and establishing The Pneumatic Tyre and Booth’s Cycle Agency and later The Dunlop Rubber Company.
Finally, to the cyclists we say ‘In bocca al lupo a tutti!’
International Children’s Book Day
International Children’s Book Day is celebrated each year to to help promote the role of children’s literature and the right of every child to become a reader.
Celebrated since 1967, this event generally falls around 2 April – the birth date of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). This year it is the turn of the Irish branch of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to launch the festivities. Library staff member Louise Gallagher is a committee member of IBBY and – with the assistance of Clodagh Neligan, Niamh Harte and Helen McGinley – has mounted two exhibitions of Hans Christian Anderson titles as part of the celebrations.
Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, originally published in 1835, have been translated into over 125 different languages. Many of the world’s most celebrated illustrators have produced beautiful images inspired by his stories, including Edmund Dulac, Kay Nielsen, Harry Clarke and Arthur Rackham. Interestingly Dulac’s friendship with William Butler Yeats led to a variety of artistic projects, including the design at Yeats’s suggestion of a proposed coinage for the Irish Free State, and collaboration on his play ‘At the Hawk’s Well’. For this Dulac designed the scenery and costumes, composed the incidental music, and took part in the first performance in 1916.
The display case in the BLU contains a selection of titles mostly from the Pollard Collection including a copy of ‘The ugly duckling and other stories from Hans Andersen’s fairy tales’ (London, 1896) and an interesting primer in Gaelic type ‘Leabhrín na leanbh’ (Baile Átha Cliath, 1913). The case in the Orientation Space of the Ussher Library features a selection of material from our modern collections including ‘Snow queen’ (London, 1993) illustrated by Irish artist P.J. Lynch.
In Tune with Michael Bublé?
One of the most frequent questions I’ve been asked about the ‘In Tune’ exhibition is: ‘Why Michael Bublé?’
The simple answer is that we received the printed score of Michael Bublé’s latest album ‘To be loved’ through legal deposit in July last year, and because of its high profile at the time it was an obvious choice to illustrate the range of our music collections. The earliest item in the exhibition is the ‘Canterbury Pontifical’, a liturgical manuscript believed to date from the last decade of the 11th century. The inclusion of a popular item from the second decade of the 21st century therefore justifies the exhibition’s claim to represent ‘a millennium of music in Trinity College Library’.
The question implies that somehow Michael Bublé doesn’t quite belong in the display. The item is included in the section headed ‘Collection Expansion’, which deals with two key developments in the growth of our music collections: the purchase of Ebenezer Prout’s music library in 1910, and the application of the legal deposit provision to music scores.
Though the Library was entitled to claim printed music under the legal deposit privilege since 1801, it actively declined to do so until the last decades of the nineteenth century. After this policy was reversed, large quantities of sheet music were received, much of it popular in nature. Whatever judgements are made about its musical merit, the value of this material is now recognised for what it reveals about the social attitudes, political concerns and popular tastes of its time. Many of the covers also show changes in how popular musicians are perceived: the performer associated with the work is often given much greater prominence than the composer.
In Tune, sponsored by KBC Bank, runs until 1 April 2014.The exhibition is also available online. Full details of the accompanying lecture and concert series are available here.
Roy Stanley – Music Librarian
Green Week 2014 – the Rise of the Electric Tram
To mark Trinity College Green Week 2014, the Department of Early Printed Books and Special Collections has mounted a mini-exhibition in the foyer of the Berkeley Library that looks at sustainable transport in the late 19th century. The need for efficient transportation that increases access, improves quality of life and has a low environmental impact is not a recent concern. As populations increased in the 19th century, more people were travelling in the crowded cities than ever before. By the 1870s, innovations such as the horse-drawn omnibus and tram made public transport more affordable and the city more accessible.
However traffic congestion was a major problem. The exhibition includes a cartoon from Punch, or the London Charivari (1890) titled “Metropolitan Metamorphosis, The Awful Result of Persistent ‘Crawling’.” It shows a horse drawn cab gradually turning into a snail as it crawls along the congested streets of Victorian London.
The horses that powered public transport were increasingly expensive to maintain in urban areas. They had to be fed and stabled and their manure was a major source of pollution on the city streets. This led to the development of a more sustainable form of transport – the electric tram. Also on display is the Illustrated London News from April 6, 1889 showing the first electric tramline in Europe on the “series system” at Northfleet, Kent. The cost of this new system was less than half that of horse powered trams and tramway company representatives were “delighted at the prospect of its speedily displacing the horse with the attendant evils and sufferings.”
Dublin welcomed its first electric trams in 1896 and by 1901 the system had been completely electrified. There were about 66 miles of electric route, the majority of which was owned and operated by the Dublin Tramway Company. Dublin trams were characteristic of the city with many built at Spa Road Works in Inchicore. Several photographs in Maurice Gorham’s Ireland from Old Photographs feature electric trams in Dublin including one on display showing trams crossing O’Connell Bridge, taking their power from overhead lines just as the LUAS does today.
To find out about more Green Week activities in the library check out the Trinity College Library Blog.