We have it on good authority that this 17th century play by Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher is one of the dirtiest in English!

Remember remember! Some very blurry printing on this highly sectarian pamphlet about 'the 5th of November' printed in 1679

Best to look away now if you're squeamish! Surgical instruments for use on the eyes, from 'Les Oeuvres de chirurgie de Jacques Guillemeau' printed in 1694.

A teeth-rottingly happy hallowe'en to all! Skeleton from William Cowper's Anatomy of Human Bodies, 1698. The plates in this enormous book are from the 1685 Dutch edition of Govert Bidloo's 'Anatomia humani corporis' & were used by Cowper with no acknowledgement.

Gabriel Naudé's History of Magick, originally printed in French in 1625, was a defence of science & intellectualism against accusations of witchcraft & magic. Glad we're past that now!

We're seeing a Jacobus Riterus in this scribbled out inscription, anyone else fancy weighing in?

If you like old libraries and are in London next Tuesday evening, 4 November, this might be of moderate interest to you. If you're not in London, you can sign up via Zoom: ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Gorgeous gourds, from 1552.

This is SO cute. A lovely sketch of the highlights of our little library by the French artist Dominique Montagnon. You can see more of her work at instagram.com/sketchbibli/

In the 17th century some Europeans believed that a bite from a tarantula (or rather wolf spider) led to tarantism, a type of hysteria that could only by cured by a frenzied dance, the tarantella!

Printed posthumously, Joseph Glanvill's 'Saducismus Triumphatus' recounted hundreds of stories to prove the existence of witches & spirits. It includes the first recorded account of a poltergeist, the 'Drummer of Tedworth', illustrated in the top left of the engraved title page.

Our 1584 Lyon edition of Malleus Maleficorum or 'The hammer of witches', Heinrich Kramer's infamous manual for identifying and prosecuting witches, first published in 1486.

The red of these anemones has really cheered me up on this miserable day in Dublin! From Hieronymus Bock's 16th century herbal, hand-coloured by an early reader.

For Oscariana, the Oscar Wilde Festival, we'll be displaying our first editions of 'An Ideal Husband' and 'A House of Pomegranates' from the Benjamin Iveagh collection in Marsh's until Saturday.

I think it's fair to say this early reader didn't quite hit the mark when they tried to recreate this double-tailed mermaid, the device of 16th century Venetian printer, Giovanni Varisco. From our 1569 edition of Bernardo Gamucci's 'Le Antichita' della citta'.

We had a lovely class on 'The Grand Tour' this afternoon with the students from Lynda Mulvin's MA students from UCD. This 1567 edition of Vitruvius' 'Ten books on architecture' was one of the many volumes we looked at as we reimagined walking through 17th century Rome!

We are advertising for an Assistant Director to join us in Marsh's Library. Full details about this exciting post here: marshlibrary.ie/vacancy-for-...

A very pretty acorn panelled binding covers our first librarian's copy of Horace's Odes, printed in Paris by Simon de Colines, 497 years ago. The 16th century binding was the work of another Parisian, binder & bookseller Jehan Norvis #autumn #bindings

Stamps from the earliest days of the Irish Free State in 1922. These are from a stamp book deposited in Marsh's in 1935 by then Keeper, Newport B. White #WorldPostDay2025

Small book, big map! As part of his research on Huguenot-Indigenous American interactions, Maddock Fellow Dr Joe Borsato @theecoalchemyst.bsky.social is looking at translations of Alexander Exquemelin's book on pirates. Apparently the pirates of the Caribbean used to hang out around Tortuga in Haiti

Delightful doodles of some pipe smoking Georgians found by Maddock Fellow Danielle Magnusson on the works of Ben Jonson, printed in 1616 #Readers #Epigrams

On 8th October, Dr Sarah Hendriks will be giving a separate talk about the project to recover history lost in the Great Fire of 1922 in Dawson Street as part of the Dublin Festival of History: ria.ie/events/dubli...

Very interesting talk by Dr Sarah Hendriks (Maddock Research Fellow) at lunchtime next 7 October in the National Library about recovering history lost in the Great Fire of 1922 at the Public Record Office of Ireland: www.nli.ie/exhibitions-...

'Where the Land floweth with milk and honey': Daniel Denton's 'A brief description of New York' printed in 1670 was the first English language account of the region & was intended to encourage settlers to the colony.

Recent Maddock fellow Kelley Glasgow explores how early modern history writing provided an outlet to criticise the political system marshlibrary.ie/how-to-insul...

Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, to usher in October! From Valeriano's 'Hieroglyphica' printed in 1602

Some lovely doggie doodles from our 14th century Psalter #Manuscript #Doodles

A section so important, it required two 'manicules' or pointing fingers, left by 16th century readers. It describes the coronation of Charles VII of France in 1380 & is from Fabyan's Chronicle, a history of Britain printed in 1516 #ManiculeMonday #MondayMarginalia

A stork and a poor auld 'unknown bird kill'd of yt coast of Affrica'. From Francois Froget's 'A Relation of a voyage ... on the coasts of Africa, Streights of Magellan, Brasil, Cayenna, and the Antilles' printed in 1698 #TravelLiterature #Birds

A very adorable mouse from 1554

Facing the red & black title page of 'Practica Visitandi Infirmos' printed in 1640 is the mark of the book's printer, Giacomo Gaffari. It told readers they could buy his books in under the sign of the bull #TitlePageTuesday #Printers

An early reader added a lovely gloved manicule, or pointing finger, to Sebastian Münster's 1554 Cosmography at the section on Ireland, described as a fertile land with a pleasant climate. He's not quite so complimentary about the people tho'.

Thank you to all 561 visitors who braved the rain and joined us for #CultureNight last night! What a fantastic evening! A special thanks to all our staff and volunteers who kept the show running and did a great job!

Less than two hours until we kick off our Culture Night 2025 tours! Join us for a free guided tour of Ireland's oldest public library this evening from 5.45pm to 8.45pm. No booking necessary; first come, first served!

Yesterday was our first Manuscript Studies Interest Group of the year! 10 astronomical manuscripts from Penn's collection and a dozen attendees. We made volvelles using a plan from @marshslibrary.bsky.social. No photos of the event, but here's a link to a booklist: drive.google.com/file/d/1wzDx...

National Ploughing Championships, 16th century style! From Sebastian Munster's 'Cosmographiae Universalis', printed in 1554.

Come join us for Culture Night 2025 on Friday 19th September! Guided tours every 30 minutes from 5:45pm to 8:45pm, no booking required! Check out the programme for more fun things to do around the city: culturenight.ie/event/cultur...

The decorative fish add a bit of whimsy to our 15th century manuscript on canon and civil law! #Medieval #Manuscripts

In 'Chorea Gigantum' (1663), Walter Charleton claimed Stonehenge was built by the Danes as a place to crown their monarchs. Of course we now know it is prehistoric megalithic monument where the demons dwell & the banshees live #Stonehenge #SpinalTap

Hmm, looks like a fun party! A meeting of Johannes Hevelius, Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe & other great astronomers, with the muse of astronomy Urania in the centre. From Hevelius' star catalogue Prodromus Astronomiae, completed & published by Hevelius' assistant & wife, Elisabeth.

My team will be talking about Narcissus Marsh and how medieval manuscripts ended up among the “best and most useful books for each faculty and science” in his public library for Dublin. @marshslibrary.bsky.social #BuiltWithBooks Oh and we also have a mummy and some pirates 🏴‍☠️

Is it us or does this image give you #TraitorsIreland vibe? So who is to be murdered next? Trust no-one. We're gripped #rte!

Look at the reflection of the gold on this 13th-century Bible ... There are lots of VERY beautiful images from the exhibition of our medieval manuscripts currently being prepared for 2026 by Prof Laura Cleaver and Dr Danielle Magnusson.

We have added a leaflet in Japanese to our growing list of online introductions to the library. It saves on paper!! Many thanks to William McIntyre for the translation: marshlibrary.ie/experience/j...

After the warm summer we've had the blackberries must be plump and ready for devouring! These hand-coloured beauties are from Hieronymus Bock's 1552 herbal #Blackberries #Autumn

In our latest blog post, recent McCarthy fellow, Dr Angela Byrne explores the poetry albums of Alicia Wilmot (c.1776–1860) & her sister-in-law, Eliza Wilmot (née Chetwood, b.1771), two women at the heart of a literary circle in Cork. marshlibrary.ie/lives-in-ver...

A virtual #manicule to this amazing painting by Sarosky & Dublin Canvas. They have transformed a dull electrical box into a bright celebration of #JonathanSwift and his #GulliversTravels, and there is the Marsh's stamp too! Not to be missed at the top of St. Patrick's Park.

A map from 1754 of 'Naboth's Vineyard', Jonathan Swift's garden just south of Marsh's Library where he kept horses and grew exotic fruit like peaches and nectarines!

Excited to have Pádraig O'Macháin & Anna Hoffmann from UCC & the McCarthy MSI project (incorporating Inks & Skins) in Marsh's working on on our manuscripts. The inks in our 14th century Processional are still looking very vibrant!

Trying & failingng to decipher the signature on this letter sent to our first librarian, Elie Bouhéreau, from Salles, around 1674. Bores, Bonas? Any other ideas?