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TCD MS 2327

TCD MS 2327 is a collection of 279 personal letters between John D’Alton and his wife Catherine D’Alton (née Phillips, d. 1 February 1859), spanning almost forty years. John D’Alton (1792-1867), antiquarian and barrister, was born County Meath. He obtained a BA from Trinity College Dublin in Spring 1811, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1813. Because of the nature of D’Alton’s work as an assize lawyer, he was obliged to be away from his family for significant periods of time and, with much encouragement from his beloved wife, wrote numerous letters chronicling his day-to-day activities. In a witty style, and an almost illegible hand, he writes of places he has visited, gives humorous descriptions of characters he encounters and speaks of his sadness at being away from his family. John and Catherine D’Alton had six children. Catherine D’Alton’s letters are filled with news from home, the progress of their children and worries regarding the health of the family, their finances, her efforts at keeping track of his whereabouts and the vagaries of the postal service, local gossip and scandal, her distress at their frequent separation, as well as coded and intimate expressions of love. Occasionally, and on instruction from her husband, Catherine also played an active rôle in her husband’s business affairs. Her letters advise, soothe and cajole her husband, and often berate him for his lack of promised letters. Many of the letters are cross written, a money-saving strategy whereby the text is written horizontally and vertically on the same page.

Aisling Lockhart

The Book of Kells

Last night a crowded Long Room hosted the launch of The Book of Kells, by Dr Bernard Meehan, Head of Research Collections and Keeper of Manuscripts.

The book was formally launched by Roger Stalley, Emeritus Professor of Art History Trinity College Dublin, and the guests were addressed by the Librarian, by Julian Honer,  Editorial Director at Thames & Hudson, and by the author himself.

Published by Thames & Hudson The Book of Kells is a sumptuous production which explores the Book of Kells in terms of its historical and artistic context, with consideration of technical aspects, illuminated by recent scientific research. The rich illustrations feature more than fifty full-size reproductions of complete pages of the manuscript and enlarged details that shed light on elements barely visible to the naked eye.

It is an essential text for anyone who has either a general or specialist interest in Ireland’s greatest artistic treasure.

Visit the Book of Kells Exhibition.

Estelle Gittins

Drawn to the Page: Irish Artists and Illustration Public Symposium

Russell, Violet. ‘Heroes of the dawn’, Dublin …,1913. Shelfmark: CUNN 347

In conjunction with the Long Room exhibition ‘Drawn to the Page: Irish artists and illustration c.1830-1930’, the History of Art Department and TRIARC will host a public symposium which will be held in the Emmet Theatre, Trinity College Arts Building, on 17 November 2012 from 10.00am to 1.30pm. It is intended that the papers will be published in an illustrated volume.

Programme:

-Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe (NCAD) on the Arts and Crafts Movement and the book
-Adrian le Harivel (NGI) on Daniel Maclise and Moore’s ‘Melodies’
-Mary Plunkett (Distillers Press) on the making of an artist’s book
-Dr Philip McEvansoneya (TCD) on George Petrie and illustration                                                                       -Dr Angela Griffith (TCD) on artists, illustration and contemporary theory.

Admission is free. To register please e-mail pmcevans@tcd.ie or griffiam@tcd.ie

Stoking the imagination

TCD MUN SOC HIST 1872-73
TCD MUN SOC HIST Officers 1872-73
Bram Stoker seated centre

Today is the 165th anniversary of the birth of Bram Stoker (1847-1912), well-known civil servant and author of The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, which he published to some acclaim in 1879. He wrote the more popular, but considerably less practical, novel, Dracula, almost 20 years later. Stoker was a graduate of Trinity, a top-class student athlete (despite being quite ill for most of his early childhood) and a member of the student societies the Hist and the Phil. The Library has a good collection of manuscript material relating to the Stoker family generally, although only a small amount of it relates to the great man himself.

One of the items in the collection supposedly links the idea of Dracula – with its themes of blood infection and the ‘undead’ – to an epidemic of cholera which was witnessed by Stoker’s mother, Charlotte Thornley, in Sligo in 1832. Stoker scholars believe Charlotte’s vivid descriptions of the suffering she had seen may have fuelled her son’s Gothic imagination in later life. Among the papers in the Library is a copy of Charlotte’s account of the onslaught of the disease.

Cholera epidemics were not unheard-of in the nineteenth century but the one in 1832 was particularly virulent; infection was believed to be so rapid that a man, becoming infected on one side of town, was said to have fallen from his horse, dead, at the other. It was thought more than 1,500 people died from the epidemic; that carpenters were unable to keep up with the demand for coffins and local legend suggested that some people were buried alive, so great was the haste to dispose of the corpses.

TCD MS 11076/2/3
TCD MS 11076/2/3 f2 Stoker, Mrs CMB (Thornley) Experiences of the Cholera in Ireland ?1832

Jane Maxwell

‘Fighting words’ now on display in the Berkeley Library foyer display case

Fighting Words is a writing centre founded in Dublin’s north inner city by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love in early 2009 to provide free classes for children and young people. To raise money for the workshop the centre has published ‘Fighting words‘. Produced in a limited edition of only 150 copies, the book contains an etching by the Irish-born American Sean Scully, twice nominated for the Turner Prize, and stories by ten authors.

The artist, the ten authors and Roddy Doyle, the instigator of the project and author of the foreword, have each signed every copy. The stories were printed at Stoney Road Press on a very old Swiss proofing press borrowed from the National Print Museum.

The Department of Early Printed Books and Special Collections is extremely grateful to The Friends of the Library for purchasing this book. The Friends of the Library is one of the oldest associations of its kind, established in June 1945 to “assist the College in promoting the welfare of the Library”. The provision of a fund for the timely purchase of rare books and manuscripts was one of the Friends’ main objectives; it remains so.