Marsh’s Library Paperless Guide (English)

MARSH’S LIBRARY houses important collections of European books and manuscripts from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

When it opened in 1707 it was the first public library in Ireland.

The interior of Marsh’s Library has remained largely unchanged over the past 300 years, and visitors come from all over the world to admire the architecture and soak up the atmosphere.

The books are housed in two galleries joined by a small reading room. The glass cases display our current exhibition. You can purchase a copy of the exhibition catalogue in the gift shop.

The First Gallery houses 10,000 books which belonged to Edward Stillingfleet, a prominent English clergyman of the late seventeenth century. This collection is particularly strong in its coverage of history, law, politics, classical studies, and science.

The founder of the library, Archbishop Narcissus Marsh, bought these books for £2,500 — an enormous sum of money at the time. The books are in the same position on the shelves in which they were placed three centuries ago.

Each bay represents a different subject. For example, the ‘J’ bay in the first gallery on the left before the glass door holds travel books and atlases.

The heaviest books are generally on the lower shelves. The smaller books, generally housed on the higher shelves, tend to be more topical or controversial works.

Through the door is the Old Reading Room. When Bram Stoker read here in 1866, and James Joyce visited in 1902, they sat in these very chairs. Today, readers consult our books and manuscripts in a secure reading room located downstairs.

The books in the Old Reading Room belonged to the first Keeper of Marsh’s Library, Elias Bouhéreau, a Huguenot who fled religious persecution in France in 1686. Bouhéreau, his wife and seven of his eight children escaped from the port of La Rochelle.

When he was made Keeper, his collection of 2,200 books came to the library.

In this room you will see our bullet books, a member of staff can point these out to you and explain how they were ‘wounded’.

The Second Gallery is less imposing than the first: the proportions between the bays are less generous and the ceiling is not vaulted. The north-facing orientation means that this gallery is always several degrees colder than the rest of the library. The chill one often experiences on entering this gallery surely explains why there are persistent stories of a ghost in the library.

On the left-hand side of the gallery is Archbishop Narcissus Marsh’s personal collection of books. Marsh was a talented linguist and his collection is particularly strong in Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac and other related languages. Marsh also had a strong interest in the great scientific developments of his time. When Marsh died his books were bequeathed to this library, but his impressive collection of oriental manuscripts went to the Bodleian in Oxford.

On the right-hand side of the gallery is the personal library of John Stearne, Bishop of Clogher. This bequest is more literary than the other three collections, with a surprising number of plays and poems. It is also the collection with the greatest number of books about Irish affairs. The rest of the library is strongly European in its focus.

The lockable cages at the end of the second gallery were designed to prevent readers from stealing the books.

The library is a registered charity.
(RCN 20000752, CHY509).

A grant from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media enables us to open to visitors.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:
There is an on-going need to preserve and repair some of the oldest and rarest books in the library.

Some books need only minor repairs, others need substantial work.

Find out how your donations can safeguard these books at: www.marshlibrary.ie/conservation

INTERACT WITH US:
Every working day of the year, we post an image from our collections on social media. You’ll be amazed by the beauty and quirkiness of the books and manuscripts we post online.  Please connect via the social media logos below.

If you have any comments about your experience at Marsh’s Library, please contact us at

information@marshlibrary.ie