Marsh's Library

Page from a manuscript (handwritten) book showing text and an elaborately decorated border, with the coat of the king of France at the bottom of the page.

Page from a printed 15th century book with an illumiated initial E

Some blingy books for world book day: A mid-15th century manuscript of Caesar's Gallic Wars, written on vellum, and that once belonged to the king of France; and our earliest printed book, the letters of Cicero to his friends printed on paper in 1472. Shiny! #WorldBookDay

Open Call | Residency with Museum Plinth Project 2026 The Museum Plinth Project invites early career visual artists to apply for one of two six month, non-studio based residencies from 1 July – 31 December 2026.

An exciting call for artists' residencies at Marsh's Library and National Museum of Ireland: visualartists.ie/advert/open-...

Engraved plate from 17th century book showing music, a map and tarantulas

The music to cure 'tarantism', a frenzied state thought to be caused by a tarantula bite. From the third ed. of Magnes, Athanasius Kircher's work on magnetism, printed in 1654

Detail from 17th century newspaper

Some delightful snarkiness from 17th century advice column The Athenian Gazette: a reader asks why the authors answer silly questions. Answer: 'everyone who sends any question thinks both himself and his question as wise as he that sent this'

Page from Hieronymi Tragi de stirpivm, 1552

A potted carnation from 1552, printed from woodblock and then hand-coloured.

Instrumenta curationis morborum deprompta ex pharmacia chirurgia & diaeta (Montpellier, no date)

Flyleaf of 17th century book with handwritten text for laudanum in Latin

Our first librarian Élie Bouhéreau added recipes for laudanum to the flyleaf of one of his books on treating disease. The first was from English Physician Thomas Sydenham who popularised the use of the tincture in the late 17th century, followed by another Bouhéreau picked up on his travels in Paris

A bit late sorry, and I think you already have the answer, but just to reiterate, 7420, Sept 1911-Aug 1912

Solomonis sententiae, versae ad Hebraicam veritatem by Philip Melanchton (Strasbourg, 1525)

A very pleasing acanthus border on this title page printed in 1525. Note the sliver of medieval manuscript fragment, used in the binding, peeking out! #TitlePageTuesday #Fragments

Detail of a page from a 16th century book showing printed text and reader annotations in ink. From 'Annotationes in Acta Apostolarum' [i.e Commentaries on the acts of the apostles] (Basel, 1525)

A reader added a fetching cuff to their 'manicule', a pointing finger used to indicate an important passage in Justus Jonas' commentaries on the acts of the apostles, printed in Basel 501 years ago #ManiculeMonday #MondayMarginalia

Suggestions for how to stay well & live to 100 from 1683: rinse your mouth out with wine (or cider) to keep your gums healthy, snort powder of rhubarb, because what can't rhubarb cure!

16th century binding stamped with a gold centre piece and with text in gold 'dono dedit H. Boherello' and date 'MDCXIII' below

This 1594 edition of the works of Virgil was given to H. Bouhereau in 1613. It was kept in the family & travelled with our first librarian, Élie Bouhéreau (1643-1719) from his native La Rochelle to exile in Dublin, where it has been on the shelves of Marsh's Library since 1707.

Engraving showing a horse in profile

Happy Lunar New Year! This beautiful specimen is from our 1668 edition of 'Markham's master-piece ... touching on curing all diseases in horses', a seminal text on horse care #LunarYear #YearOfTheHorse

Seeking an Assistant Librarian - Marsh's Library We are seeking to recruit an Assistant Librarian for Marsh’s Library in central Dublin. Location: St. Patrick’s Close, Dublin 8 Reporting to: Assistant Director, Marsh’s Library Salary: €40,000 – €45,...

We are seeking to appoint an Assistant Librarian in Marsh's Library. This will be a great position for an early-career librarian. Further details at: marshlibrary.ie/assistant-li...

Flyleaf detail showing a flyleaf with 'Guillaudeau' and '1623'

We think the flourish after '25' in this inscription signifies 'deniers', indicating the cost of the book, anyone have any different ideas? We've come across this symbol a few times on books owned by our first librarian, Élie Bouhéreau, a Rochelais Huguenot #bookhistory

LAI Rare Books Group AGM & Annual Lecture. Dr Nora Moroney, exhibition curator "Benjamin Iveagh - a life in books". Online, Wed 18 Feb, at 12.00. The Group is also running an online rare books cataloguing course on Thurs, 26 Feb. Links below!

https://ow.ly/AJkB50YcJ8O

https://ow.ly/U9qM50YcJ8P

Engraving of a woman (Louyse Bourgeois) with text in French below

Today marks international day of women and girls in science. Louyse Bourgeois (1563-1636) was midwife to the French royal family & the first woman to publish on obstetrics. #WomenInScience

Title page of 'Epitome Fabii Quintiliani nuper summo & ingenio & diligentia collecta' (Paris, Simon de Colines, 1536)

Drawing of a rabbit

Our intern Audrey found this lovely drawing left by a past reader. They traced one of the bunnies from the title page onto the other side. The rabbits were part of the device or emblem of 16th century Parisian printer Simon de Colines.

Detail of a page from Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros (Paris, 1531) with annotations added in ink

Amid their copious annotations, a reader left a 'manicule' or pointing finger to indicate an important section in 'The Greek anthology', a collection of poetry printed in Paris 495 years ago.

Woodcut of people on skis with arrows

The early days of the winter Olympic biathlon! From The History of the Northern People, 1555

Photo showing the inside of a book binding

Hidden in the binding of this 16th century French herbal, a book describing the uses of plants, are sheets of printed 'waste' used by the binder to bulk up the cover. This seems to be a frame for something never printed #fragments #bindings

17th century note on end leaf with price of books

Title page of 'Methodes de traiter des controverses de religion' (Paris, 1638)

Sometimes if we're lucky owners write the price they paid inside their books. In this case an English owner tells us they paid £2 12 shillings for the two volumes of a work on religious controversy printed in Paris. According to TNA's currency converter that's 37 days wages for a skilled tradesman!

Image of hand-coloured woodcuts of narcissi

A belated Happy St Brigid's Day, celebrated optimistically in Ireland as the first day of spring! These (early) narcissi are from L'Obel's 1591 Icones Stirpium
#StBrigidsDay #LaFheileBride #Spring

Close up photo of tiny 'rubber' ducks with a key for scale

Watercolour of mallard hen

watercolour of mallard drake

Several visitors have left us these tiny rubber ducks at the till recently. We've made sure they're getting some culture, including showing them watercolours of their 18th century ancestor!

Thank goodness they turned it off at some stage or we'd all be in the sea by now

Map of Ireland from Geografia Tavole moderne by Antoine Lafrery (Rome, c.1560s)

A lot of the country seems to have moved a bit south on this 16th century map of Ireland! From Antoine Lafrery's Geografia Tavole.

Photo of rare books on a shelf with lego minifigures and bunting photoshopped in

Happy #InternationalLegoDay! It's party time for #MarshsMinifigures If you pop into the library today, take a self portrait sheet home with you and become a minifigure for the day 📷

Title page of Psalterium cum hymnis, London, 1524

A printed indulgence from c.1515

A lovely & extremely rare psalter printed in London by Richard Pynson 502 years ago, made all the more special by what someone thought to tuck inside it: a unique printed 'indulgence', offering to reduce a sinner's time in purgatory in return for funds towards Hereford Cathedral.

Photo of a plate showing Boyle's air pump and other apparatus from New experiments physico-mechanical touching the spring of the air (London, 1682)

#otd in 1627, chemist Robert Boyle was born in Lismore, Waterford in Ireland. His experiments with the air pump in the 1660s proved the existence of a vacuum. Boyle's Law describes the relationship between the pressure & volume of a gas.

Call for Volunteers: Join the Team - Marsh's Library We are looking for outgoing, confident people to join our team of volunteers.

We are looking for outgoing people to join our team of volunteers. We'd like to hear from you if you can spare one morning or one afternoon per week to welcome visitors to our historic library. Find out more here: marshlibrary.ie/call-for-vol...

Photo of a table with a poster showing examples of corners of 18th century book bindings decorated with good tools

We have a new mini art activity for visitors, inspired by our 'Exquisite & Rare' book binding exhibition. Thank you for everyone who has left us these 'book corner' stunners!