MARSH’S LIBRARY VISIT 11 JUNE 2011
A note by Eamon Henry.
Date 12 June 2011

A visit to Marsh’s Library was made on Saturday 11 June 2011 by eight members of the Active IT Society (AITS), organised and led by Mrs. Angela Hickey. The Library is located in St. Patrick’s Close, beside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. We began our visit about 11.00 a.m. and were kindly received by the Keeper, Dr. Muriel McCarthy and the Deputy Keeper Mrs. Ann Simmons. Besides looking at a sample of the books on offer, displayed under glass, we also watched a film which gave the history of the Library, built in 1701 by Narcissus Marsh, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, and in continuous existence since then. It is still publicly available to scholars. Its website address is www.marshlibrary.ie, with much of interest on offer.
The interior of the Library, with its beautiful dark oak bookcases, remains unchanged since it was built three hundred years ago. It is a magnificent example of a seventeenth century scholars’ library. Each bookcase has a carved and lettered gable. Also unchanged are the three elegant wired alcoves or “cages” where readers were locked in with rare books, of which many were originally chained to their shelves.

A brief historical background is in order. The King of England during 1689-1702 was William III, son of William of Orange and having as wife Mary, daughter of James II, until her death in 1694. The Irish supporters of James II had been defeated by the armies of William III at the Boyne, at Aughrim and at Limerick by the early 1690s. Thus, around 1700 the Anglican Church in Ireland, centred on Dublin, was very much within the English environment. Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713) was an Englishman, educated at Oxford before Ordination to the Church of England. He was a good scholar and became Provost of Trinity College Dublin, where he was soon recognised by the Duke of Ormonde as suitable for the post of Archbishop of Dublin, which Marsh duly obtained. Archbishop Marsh was particularly interested in science, mathematics and music, and he himself played the lute.

Marsh’s Library was the first public library in Ireland and one of the first in these islands. It was designed by Sir William Robinson, who also designed the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham. There are four main collections of printed books, relating to the 16th, 17th and early part of the 18th centuries, and comprising 25,000 books. The collectors were scholars and the scope of the subjects is surprisingly wide and varied, including the Greek and Latin classics, medicine, law, science, travel, mathematics and music. There are also books in Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish and Russian.
One collection is that of Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1699), Bishop of Leicester, some 10,000 books, and bought by Marsh for 2,500 pounds. Marsh’s own collection is the second, except for his great collection of Oriental manuscripts which he left to the Oxford Bodleian Library. A third collection is that of Elias Bouhereau, a French Huguenot refugee who became the first librarian after fleeing France in 1685. The fourth collection is that of John Stearne (1660-1745), Anglican Bishop of Clogher. There are also some three hundred manuscripts in the Library.

It holds as well two volumes of Bishop Bedell’s translation of the Old Testament into Irish, first published in London in 1685. Archbishop Marsh was responsible for the preparation of this translation for printing, with the help and encouragement of Robert Boyle (1627-1691), scientist and discoverer of “Boyle’s Law”. Prominent persons connected with the Library include Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral alongside the Library. He was one of the governors of the Library and attended the annual visitation for many years. A user of the Library was Thomas Moore (1779-1852), poet and song-writer.