News & Current Projects
News from all Projects
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On Display. The Fagel Family’s Copy of Maria Sibylla Merian’s ‘Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium’ (1719)Although the works of natural history found within the Fagel Collection are limited in number, they are some of the collection’s most visually striking objects. Emily Mattern reflects on the Fagel copy of Maria Sibylla Merian's 'Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium' (1719). -
Used Books? Tracing the History of Ownership in the Fagel CollectionBy Emily Monty Dr Emily Monty was the Fagel Collection Visiting Research Fellow in autumn 2022 hosted by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute. She will present her work at the symposium on Unlocking the Fagel Collection: The Library and its Context (June 21-23, 2023). At the turn of the nineteenth … Continue reading "Used Books? Tracing the History of Ownership in the Fagel Collection" -
Cuala Press Research. Anatomy of a photographThis 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. -
Trinity’s “First Folio”This year the world celebrates the 400th anniversary of the publication of the book now known as Shakespeare’s First Folio. Trinity College Dublin Library is proud to own the only copy known to remain in Ireland. While not exactly a rare book – slightly under a third of the print run of about 750 copies … Continue reading "Trinity’s “First Folio”" -
Cuala Press among friendsBlog on Irish exhibits in the 1914 Arts Decoratifs de Grande Bretagne et d'Irlande Exposition at the Louvre, Paris.
Cuala Press Project
The Cuala Press Project commenced in October 2020 and is focused on two collections, the Cuala Press Print Collection (TCD MS 11574) and the Cuala Press Business Archives (TCD MS 11535). The project is supported by the Schooner Foundation which funded the appointment of an archivist, a conservator, a digital photographer, and a post-doctoral researcher in the history of art. The aim of the project is to catalogue, conserve, research and digitize the collections, and make them more accessible to researchers.
The Cuala Press was established by Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (1868-1940) and Susan Mary Yeats (1866-1949) in Churchtown, County Dublin in 1908. The Cuala Press Print collection comprises 111 hand-coloured prints designed for the Cuala Press by artists such as Dorothy Blackham, Beatrice Moss Campbell (Lady Glenavy), Mary Cottenham Yeats and Elizabeth Corbet Yeats. The Business Archives of the Cuala Press comprises approximately 81 boxes of material and includes some minute books of directors' meetings, cash books, letters, some original drawings for prints, sample books, and designs for embroidery. The Cuala Press collections are visually stunning and form an important part of Ireland's Creative Legacy.
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Cuala Press Research. Anatomy of a photographThis 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.
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Cuala Press among friendsBlog on Irish exhibits in the 1914 Arts Decoratifs de Grande Bretagne et d'Irlande Exposition at the Louvre, Paris.
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Two Cuala Press Visual ArtistsBlog on two little know Cuala Press women artists. -
Cluna Studios. A competitor for Cuala Press art printsThis blog looks at the Cluna Studios who emerged in the 1920s as a competitor to the Cuala Press for art prints.
Fagel Collection Project
The Fagel Collection at the Library of Trinity College Dublin is one of the most important and largest still-extant Dutch private libraries from the eighteenth century. The library was assembled as a working library by several generations of the Fagel family, of whom successive members held high offices in the Dutch Republic throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Trinity College Dublin purchased the collection of books, pamphlets and maps as a whole in 1802.
The Library of Trinity College Dublin and the KB, National Library of the Netherlands will collaborate in a three-year project (2020-2022) for the conservation and digital cataloguing of the Dutch 18th-century Fagel Collection by the Library of Trinity. The project 'Unlocking the Fagel Collection' is made possible by the support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken).
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On Display. The Fagel Family’s Copy of Maria Sibylla Merian’s ‘Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium’ (1719)Although the works of natural history found within the Fagel Collection are limited in number, they are some of the collection’s most visually striking objects. Emily Mattern reflects on the Fagel copy of Maria Sibylla Merian's 'Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium' (1719).
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Used Books? Tracing the History of Ownership in the Fagel CollectionBy Emily Monty Dr Emily Monty was the Fagel Collection Visiting Research Fellow in autumn 2022 hosted by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute. She will present her work at the symposium on Unlocking the Fagel Collection: The Library and its Context (June 21-23, 2023). At the turn of the nineteenth … Continue reading "Used Books? Tracing the History of Ownership in the Fagel Collection"
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Loose Book Illustrations in the Fagel Map Portfoliosby Emily Monty Dr Emily Monty was the Fagel Collection Visiting Research Fellow in autumn 2022. She was hosted by the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin. You can view a conversation between Emily and Ann-Marie Hansen, Project Manager of Unlocking the Fagel Collection here. The Fagel Collection … Continue reading "Loose Book Illustrations in the Fagel Map Portfolios" -
‘The most lamentable burning of the cittie of Corke’: a view on Irish history from a Dutch CollectionOn 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 … Continue reading "‘The most lamentable burning of the cittie of Corke’: a view on Irish history from a Dutch Collection"
Manuscripts for Medieval Studies Project
The project, generously funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, will seek to research, catalogue, conserve, digitise and share 16 medieval manuscripts of international research significance. The project outputs will be presented in the Library's Digital Collections platform in III-F display, allowing us to share our collections with communities around the world, to catalyse research and educational dissemination on a global scale, whilst ensuring the preservation of our collections for generations to come. The selection of manuscripts demonstrates the breadth and variety of the Library's collections of source material for the study of the art, history and culture of the medieval period, and the history of the book in particular.
The project will also directly contribute to teaching and research within Trinity College Dublin, foster collaborations with other research institutes, and will open up engagement with the manuscripts to a global audience at the click of a button. This project was personally supported by Dr Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, who died on 15 April 2021. This project will stand as a memorial to his deep belief in the transformative power of libraries as a 'vital necessity for the soul, mind and future dreams of a nation'.
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TCD MS 502, witness to an early stage in the composition of the Worcester Chronica chronicarumThe Worcester Chronica chronicarum (‘Chronicle of chronicles’) is a very important and ambitious text of the first half of the twelfth century. It purports to be a history from the origins of mankind down to the year 1140, where the principal manuscript copy—Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS 157, known by the siglum ‘C’—now ends. TCD … Continue reading "TCD MS 502, witness to an early stage in the composition of the Worcester Chronica chronicarum"
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The process of digitising Mathew Paris’s ‘Book of St Albans’The digitisation of the Book of St Albans manuscript by Matthew Paris was quite possibly the most anticipated step within the Medieval manuscript digitisation project currently being conducted within the Library of Trinity College Dublin. This high value manuscript was first photographed as black and white collotype prints for the M.R. James Facsimile edition in … Continue reading "The process of digitising Mathew Paris’s ‘Book of St Albans’" -
John of Worcester’s ‘Chronicula’, TCD MS 503TCD MS 503 is principally comprised of John of Worcester’s ‘Chronicula’, a text which describes itself as having been derived from the more celebrated and much more elaborate Worcester Chronica chronicarum, a twelfth-century chronicle, the authorship of which has been attributed variously to Florence and/or John, both Worcester monks. As the diminutive form of its … Continue reading "John of Worcester’s ‘Chronicula’, TCD MS 503"
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‘Babbling in the Vernacular’: The English Language in the Middle AgesAmong the riches being digitised as part of the Manuscripts for Medieval Studies project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York are three codices containing English, one eleventh-century, one thirteenth- or fourteenth-century and one fifteenth-century. Collectively, these three manuscripts give us an interesting snapshot of the status of English in the Middle Ages and … Continue reading "‘Babbling in the Vernacular’: The English Language in the Middle Ages"