Marsh's Library
Marsh's Library, built in 1701 by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh , was the first public library in Ireland. It was designed by Sir William Robinson, the Surveyor General of Ireland, and is one of the very few 18th century buildings left in Dublin that is still being used for its original purpose. Many of the collections in the Library are still kept on the shelves allocated to them by Marsh and by Elias Bouhéreau, the first librarian, when the Library was opened.
The Library was formally incorporated in 1707 by an Act of Parliament called An Act for settling and preserving a public library for ever. The Act vested the house and books in a number of religious and state dignitaries and officials and their successors as Governors and Guardians of the Library.
The interior of the library with its dark carved oak bookcases and three wired alcoves or 'cages' where the readers were locked with rare books, remains unchanged since it was built three hundred years ago. It is typical of a 17th century scholars' library.
Collections
There are four main collections, consisting of 25,000 books relating to the 16th, 17th and the early part of the 18th centuries. These are:
- 80 incunabula (books printed before 1501)
- 430 books printed in Italy before 1600
- 1,200 books printed in England before 1640
- 5,000 books printed in England before 1700
As one might expect, there is a large collection of liturgical works, missals, breviaries, bibles printed in almost every language, a great deal of theology and religious controversy. The collectors were scholarly, and the scope of the subjects is wide and varied. There are books on medicine, law, science, travel, navigation, mathematics, music, surveying and classical literature in all the collections. A separate room is reserved for books and periodicals relating to Irish history printed in the last hundred years.
The most important collection is the library of Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1699) who was Bishop of Worcester. In 1705 Narcissus March paid £2,500 for his library of nearly 10,000 books. Stillingfleet's library was regarded as the finest private library in England in the later part of the 17th century. Stillingfleet was an influential figure in the Anglican Church during a period of great religious conflict in the 17th century.
Archbishop Marsh left all his books to the library. He was particularly interested in science, mathematics and music, and many of his mathematical books are extensively annotated by him. He was also interested in oriental languages and rabbinical and medieval writers. He collected books in Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish and Russian and his collection of Latin Judaica is particularly important.
Dr. Elias Bouhéreau, a Huguenot refugee who fled from France in 1695, became the first librarian. His books, which he left to the Library, relate to France and to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and its aftermath and the religious controversies of the 17th century. Dr Bouhéreau's collection constitutes a unique source for the study of Calvinism in 17th century France. His medical books are also of great interest.
John Stearne (1660-1745), Bishop of Clogher, bequeathed his books to Marsh's in 1745. These are similar to the other collections, but among them is the oldest book in the Library, Cicero's 'Letters to his Friends' printed in Milan in 1472.
There are also about three hundred manuscripts in the Library. The most important is a volume of the Lives of the Irish Saints, dating from about 1400, and written in Latin. There are also medical, theological, legal and music manuscripts. The music in manuscript consists of fantasias for instruments and virginal, lute and lyra viol music by composers of the first half of the 17th century. There are also rare 16th century madrigals printed in Venice, Antwerp and London.
Famous readers include Jonathan Swift, Charles Robert Maturin, Thomas Moore, James Clarence Mangan, Bram Stoker and James Joyce.