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Re-discovered Treasure from the Long Room

Giordani music manuscripts rediscovered during Old Library redevelopment preparations

The unseen high galleries and closed stacks of the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin are currently a hive of activity, as a small army of library staff and project assistants have begun to empty the shelves in preparation for the restoration and redevelopment of the building which is due to begin late next year. Each individual volume must be cleaned and measured, its physical condition assessed and recorded, an electronic tag attached, and its catalogue description checked for accuracy. All of this information must then be entered in the Library’s online database before the volume is carefully packed away and sent to secure off-site storage (where it will remain retrievable for researchers throughout the project).

This amounts to the most detailed and systematic shelf check of this material for many years, and already it has thrown up some interesting new discoveries. One such occurred when examining the contents of a volume of assorted vocal and instrumental sheet music collected in the late 18th century by a member of the Balfour family of Townley Hall, (a country house near Drogheda in Co. Louth, about 55 kilometres from Dublin). Bound in at the back of this volume (shelfmark OLS X-2-1) was a hitherto undocumented music manuscript, faintly headed “Giordani Solfeggio”.

Music score of 18th century composerTommaso Giordani, titled “Giordani Solfeggio”
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