During my first year on the Carnegie Project, I had the opportunity to work on a group of five 15th-century manuscripts, mostly antiphonaries (choir books), ranging in size from 40×30 cm (TCD MS 101) to 54x38cm (TCD MS 77).
Three of the manuscripts (TCD MSS 77, 78 and 79) presented themselves, as is the case of a large number of other manuscripts from this period, in a typical 18th-century binding that had been “Executed for the College in 1741-1744 by the shop of John Exshaw of Dublin in speckled calf”; whether the original contemporary binding had been discarded during this process, or if the manuscripts had already been rebound before 1741, it’s difficult to say.
What is certain is that the contemporary medieval binding was replaced with a typical 18th-century full leather structure with hemp sewing supports laced-into laminated boards. At a later stage all three of the manuscripts were rebacked in the early 1900s with the use of poor-quality leather.
The Cuala Press operated from different premises during its existence. Initially, under the Dun Emer Press imprint, it was part of Dun Emer enterprises in Dundrum from 1902 until 1908. Elizabeth and Lily Yeats split from Dun Emer and Evelyn Gleeson, in 1908 and moved their printing and embroidery operations to ‘a four roomed cottage’ on Lower Churchtown Road in July of that year. It was housed in William and Georges Yeats home on 82 Merrion Square from August 1923 until February 1925. Cuala then moved to Baggot Street and sub-rented upstairs rooms from the building’s main tenants, Norman Allen Ltd. They remained at Baggot Street until January 1942, by which time W. B. Yeats (the Press’s editor) and Elizabeth were both dead. After 1942 the Press, now managed by George (W.B.’s widow), moved to her house on Palmerstown Road. The thirty-two years in Churchtown and Baggot Street were the most productive. Photographs with decorative and historical detail exist from all locations and are rich sources about Cuala Press life, industry, output, location, and much more.
This blog looks at one photograph taken in the Cuala Press Baggot Street premises in 1932, and the avenues of research that image invites and the questions it asks.
TCD MS 266 is perhaps one of the most important works among the famous Waldenses prose manuscripts originally collected by Sir Samuel Moreland from the Waldensian Pastor Jon Leger. The document contains some critical information about the persecution that the Waldenses faced, along with a description of examination of prisoners, and letters from king Louis XII. However, the one article of greatest interest located on folio 19r, is a copy of the Papal Bull Id Nostri Cordis “our hearty desires”. This Bull of Pope Innocent VIII was promulgated in Rome on April 27, 1487, which was the 5th Kalends of May 1487 on the Julian Calendar. It was later repeated and signed again in the convent of St Laurence in June 26, 1487. The Bull outlined a plenary indulgence (forgiveness) for anyone who joined the military crusades against the Waldensians. His commands extended to religious and secular powers and threatened excommunication for those who did not join. A copy of the original bull has been kept in the Library at Cambridge for many years and is currently held in the unpublished medieval manuscripts Ms Dd.3.25. The existence of the bull is attested even by catholic historians such as Cesare Baronius in his Ecclesiastical Annals Volume 19 where he recognized the order for extermination of the Waldenses as going forth in the third year of the pontificate.
Leading up to these events, for years Rome had implemented inquisition against the Waldenses in the northern regions of Italy. Dominican Inquisitor Reinerius Saccho had identified the Waldenses as the most dangerous of all the heretical groups for three reasons:
“First, because it is older; some say that it has existed from the time of Sylvester and others from the time of the apostles.”
“Second, because it is more general; for there is scarcely any country in which this Sect is not.”
“The third, because, while all other Sects excite the abhorrence of their hearers by the outrageousness of their blasphemies against God, this (namely of the Leonists) has a great appearance of piety; and they believe all things concerning God, and which are contained in the creed, rightly only they blaspheme the Romish Church which blasphemy a great multitude of the Laity are easily induced to believe. And, as we read in the Book of Judges, that Samson’s foxes had different faces, but their tails tied together, so the heretics are divided into Sects among themselves, but in attacking the Church they are united. When there are, in one house, heretics of three Sects, of which each condemns the other, each one at the same time attacks the Romish Church and thus these crafty little foxes destroy the vineyard of the Lord, that is the Church, by their errors.
There were concerns about the Waldenses being taught to read the bible freely and Reinerius had remarked how some could recite the entire New Testament “word for word”. The promulgation of the Bible in the vulgar tongue so widely, along with views contrary to the church of Rome which were deemed heretical, prompted the pope to launch a crusade against the Waldenses.
As a result following the release of the bull, commissioner Albert Cattaneo led the crusade against the Waldensians into the mountains and many were displaced or killed. On one occasion Cattaneo’s commander La Palud had observed some Waldenses go into a nearby cave and ordered a fire be built at its entrance. After the fire was extinguished, the inside of the cave was examined and there was found to be 400 children dead in their mother’s arms and about three thousand individuals perished from the smoke.
It was this important evidence to which men like Sir Samuel Moreland made comparisons biblically for the church of Rome to the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians and the prophetic warning contained in the books of Daniel and Revelation.
JAMES BOWEN
TCD MS 266 folio 19r
The Library of Trinity College Dublin holds a rare collection of ten Waldensian manuscripts (MSS 258-267), written in a dialect of Provençal, mostly dating from the 16th century. They contain mainly religious tracts, a bible (MS 258) and a volume containing seven poems (MS 261). TCD MS 266 was recently digitized as part of the Virtual Trinity Library project, generously funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York: https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/76537996g?locale=en
Schaff, Philip (1924). History of the Christian Church: The middle ages, by David S. Schaff. Pt. 1, 1049-1294. 1926. Pt. 2, 1294-1517. 1924. C. Scribner’s Sons.
Elizabeth Corbet Yeats’s private press was an important cultural and social enterprise, it operated under the Dun Emer imprint from 1903-1908 and thereafter as The Cuala. The last book was published five years after ECY’s death in 1946. The Press frequently exhibited their publications at home and abroad in arts and crafts exhibitions and these positioned their output among other members of the international private press and the wider Arts and Crafts movement.
On the morning of 31st May 1622, exactly four hundred years ago, a terrible fire struck Cork city. It was sparked by an early summer thunderstorm. Many of the tightly packed dwellings within the city walls were built of timber or clay and had thatched roofs, and when lightning struck they quickly went up in flames. Between 11 o’clock and noon the fire tore through all parts of the city, leaving a trail of devastation.
One of the reasons we know about this fire is because it was the subject of a news pamphlet, A relation of the most lamentable burning of the cittie of Corke, in the west of Ireland, in the province of Monster, by thunder and lightning, which was printed in London on 20th June, barely three weeks later. It is a scarce work, with only three copies recorded in the English Short Title Catalogue. But a Dutch translation was printed in The Hague by Aert Meuris in 1622, and this translation is held in the Library of Trinity College Dublin among the 5,200 pamphlets in the Fagel Collection.
