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Category: Early Printed Books

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Gratitude to the ladies

Andrew Lang was born in Selkirk, Scotland, on 31st March 1844. He studied at the Universities of St. Andrews and Glasgow, and Balliol College, Oxford. He was elected to an Open Fellowship at Merton College, moving there in 1869. Lang was prolific in a number of disciplines, such as pre-history, the relationship between myth and religion, and Scottish history, and was particularly prominent in the field of folklore, being a founding member, in 1878, of the Folklore Society, and its president during the International Folk-Lore Congress in London in 1891. He died on 20 July 1912. It is perhaps paradoxical, given the prevailing view at that time that children’s books were not real literature, that he is probably best remembered for his children’s books, particularly the ‘coloured’ series of fairy books. More ironic still, it was his wife who did the majority of the work on these.

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Much ado about MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses are a 21st-century phenomenon and have become a popular means of learning, especially in the current worldwide lockdown situation. They are ‘massive’ and ‘open’ because there are no limits to the number of participants and no qualification requirements. With the development of technology, they are a natural progression from correspondence courses. Continue reading “Much ado about MOOCs”

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A Bibliographical Alphabet

Due to the current situation, we are all working from home, so we are unable to show you new images from our collections. However, we are keen to maintain our online presence, so do follow us on Twitter and enjoy looking back at previous blog posts. We are also available by email – epbooks@tcd.ie – but obviously there is a limit as to what research we can do to answer your enquiries. We will do our best, of course!

Bibliography, in the sense of the history and description of books, uses a number of words which are not common in everyday life, so we thought some of our followers might find this A-Z useful. Words in italics are further explained under their initial letter.

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The Arch C. Elias bequest of Jonathan Swift material

Frontispiece portrait of Swift from The Works of J.S, D.D, D.S.P.D. in four volumes …, Dublin, 1735. OLS L-11-396

This summer saw the completion of cataloguing of printed items from the Arch C. Elias bequest. This outstanding collection of material by and about Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was bequeathed to the Library in 2008 by Dr Archibald C. Elias, Jr (1944-2008). Continue reading “The Arch C. Elias bequest of Jonathan Swift material”

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A moving experience

Due to some necessary, very noisy, works being carried out in the Old Library building, the Early Printed Books and Special Collections reading room is moving to a temporary home in the Map Library, in the basement of the Ussher Library. The work is scheduled to begin on Monday 4th November and last for at least two weeks.

Gall.UU.3.53

We will take with us all material which is on hold, and there will be Stack and Santry deliveries to the Map Library, although the former may take slightly longer than usual. A small number of books may be unavailable for the duration but we hope this will not apply to many. If you have books on hold and will not want them again, we would be very grateful if you would let us know before 4th November, either by phone – 01 896 1172 – or email – epbooks@tcd.ie – to minimise the amount of material being moved.

Unfortunately, we will be unable to facilitate any classes during this time.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and look forward to welcoming you back to our usual reading room when the noise has abated.