Guide to Marsh’s Library

Step back into the Eighteenth Century

MARSH’S LIBRARY was the first public library in Ireland when it opened in 1707. We hold rare and important books and manuscripts dating from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The interior has remained 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 long galleries joined by a small reading room. The glass cases display our current exhibition. Staff members will be happy to talk to you about the library.

First Gallery

The First Gallery contains 10,000 books which belonged to Edward Stillingfleet, a prominent English clergyman of the late seventeenth century. This collection is strong in its coverage of history, law, politics, classical studies, and science. The founder of the library, 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 on the lower shelves. The smaller books on the higher shelves tend to be more topical or controversial works.

Old Reading Room

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 downstairs.

The 2,200 books in the Old Reading Room belonged to the 1st Keeper of Marsh’s Library, Élie Bouhéreau, a Huguenot who fled from France in 1686 to escape religious persecution. Bouhéreau, his wife and seven of his eight children escaped from the port of La Rochelle.

Some of the books in this room were damaged by machine-gun fire during the Easter Rising of 1916.

Second Gallery

The Second Gallery is narrower than the First Gallery, and the ceiling is not vaulted. The north-facing orientation means that this Second Gallery is always several degrees colder than the rest of the library. The chill one often feels on entering this space surely explains why there are persistent stories of a ghost in the library.

On the left-hand side is Archbishop Narcissus Marsh’s personal collection of books. Marsh was a talented linguist, and his collection is very strong in Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac and other related languages. Marsh also had a strong interest in the great scientific developments of his time and we have rare works by Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Isaac Newton and many other famous scientists. When Marsh died his books came to this library, but his impressive collection of oriental manuscripts went to the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

On the right-hand side is the personal library of John Stearne, Bishop of Clogher. This bequest is more literary than the three other 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.

About Us

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

There is an on-going need to preserve and repair some of the oldest and rarest books in the library. We do this in our conservation bindery. Some books need only minor repairs, others need substantial work. The library is a registered charity (RCN 20000752) and your donations can help to safeguard these books for the future. For further details see here or talk to a member of staff.

We post an image from our collections every day on social media. You’ll be amazed by the beauty and quirkiness of our books and manuscripts.