Dr. Parr’s account may perhaps require to be modified by comparison with the following document:—“June 29, 1659.—The Commissioners of Parliament for the Government of Ireland referred to ‘certain persons named’ to take a view of the gallery at Cork House and the armory-room near the Castle, and to consider with workmen which place may be most convenient for placing Dr. Ussher’s Library, and to present an estimate of the charge for making Presses and Chains for the Books in order to their use and security.” On 1st November following it was ordered “that the Trustees for Trinity College, as also Dr. Watson, Dr. Gorges, and Mr. Williamson, be desired to attend the Board and to consider together how the Library formerly belonging to Dr. Ussher, purchased by the State and army, may be disposed and fitted for Publick use. And also to take into consideration a Letter from Dr. Berners [query, Bernard], as also a Paper delivered by Dr. Jones, concerning the publishing of some part of the said Library or manuscripts, and of recovering some part of the said Library being at present abroad in some men’s hands, albeit they ought to have been returned hither with the Books as were purchased, or such only as were sent hither and are in the custody of Mr. Williamson or others. And to inform themselves in what condition the said Library at present is. Whether since the coming of the said Books hither any of them have been lent out or otherwise disposed of—to whom, when, and by whose order, with what else may concern the Business.”[113]
With respect to the part which the King had in sending the books to the College, Dr. Ingram seems to suspect that Dr. Parr’s “effusively loyal spirit led him erroneously to attribute this act of restitution to Charles II. His Majesty’s consent,” he adds, “would perhaps be formally necessary, but it seems to have been really the Irish House of Commons that moved in the matter. In the Journals of the House under that date, 31 Maii, 1661, appears an order ‘that the Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the College of Dublin, and Mr. Richard Lingard, with such others as they will take to their assistance, be decreed and are hereby empowered, with all convenient speed, to cause the Library formerly belonging to the late Lord Primate of Armagh, and purchased by the army, to be brought from the Castle of Dublin, where they now are, into the said College, there to be preserved for public use; and the said persons are likewise to take a catalogue of all the said Library, both manuscripts and printed books, and to deliver the same into this House, to be inserted in the Journals of the House.’”[114] I may add that in the catalogue of MSS. drawn up by George Browne (afterwards Provost) in 1688 (and printed by Dr. Bernard in his Catalogus Manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ), these MSS. are stated to have been given by the “Conventus generalis habitus Dublinii an. 1666.” It seems probable, too, that Dr. Parr has somewhat exaggerated the losses from the Library when he says that most of the MSS. were lost. As far as we can judge in the absence of a catalogue earlier than the Restoration, the best MSS. would seem to be still in the collection. It still contains, happily, the most beautiful book in the world, to be presently described more particularly.
In 1671 the Countess of Bath, whose husband, Henry Bourchier, had been a Fellow, presented a collection of books purchased for the express purpose, some of them handsomely bound, and with her arms on the sides. Dr. Ingram has quoted from the Life and Errors of John Dunton an interesting notice of the Library in 1704. From this we learn that there was nothing to distinguish the building externally; “it is,” says he, “over the scholars’ lodgings, the length of one of the quadrangles, and contains a great many choice books of great value, particularly one, the largest I ever saw for breadth; it was an Herbal, containing the lively portraitures of all sorts of Trees, Plants, Herbs, and Flowers.” The Library at that time served as a Museum as well, for he says that he was shown in the same place “the skin of a notorious Tory which had been tanned and stuffed with straw.” This interesting relic does not now exist, which is not surprising, considering the state of dilapidation in which it was at the time of Dunton’s visit.[115] Not very long after Dunton’s visit the foundation stone of the present Library was laid (1712), the House of Commons having granted considerable sums for the purpose. It was completed in 1732. The print on next page, dated 1753, gives an illustration of this building as it then appeared. In the interim we obtain an unsatisfactory glimpse of the state of things in a letter from Berkeley, then a Fellow, which mentions that the Library “is at present so old and ruinous and the books so out of order that there is little attendance given.”
The new building speedily received large accessions of books. In 1726 Dr. William Palliser, Archbishop of Cashel, bequeathed to the College all such books and editions in his library as the College did not already possess. This gift amounted to about four thousand volumes. He made it a condition that these books should always be kept next to those of Archbishop Ussher.
A still greater benefactor to the Library was Dr. Claudius Gilbert, who had been Vice-Provost and Professor of Divinity. In forming his library he had in view the purpose of presenting it to the College, and applied great knowledge and judgment to the selection of books. His collection, the fruit of many years of such care, contained nearly thirteen thousand volumes, many of them early and rare texts. His bust was placed near the books in 1758.
OLD PRINT OF LIBRARY, 1753.
Nearly at the same time as Gilbert’s gift, the MS. collection was largely augmented by the bequest of Dr. John Stearne, Bishop of Clogher and Vice-Chancellor of the University. This collection included that of Dr. John Madden (President of the College of Physicians), a catalogue of which was printed in Dr. Bernard’s Catalogus Manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ. Amongst the MSS. thus acquired was the collection in thirty-two folio volumes of the Depositions of the Sufferers by the Rising in 1641. These records had been in the custody of Matthew Barry, Clerk of the Council, and at his death were purchased by Dr. John Madden, at the sale of whose books they were purchased by Dr. Stearne. From the same collection we obtained a considerable number of letters and other documents relating to military and judicial proceedings in Ireland, especially from 1647 to 1679.
In 1786 there was added to the Library an extremely valuable collection of Irish (Celtic) books formerly belonging to the celebrated Edward Lhuyd,[116] at whose death they were purchased by Sir John Sebright. At the suggestion of Edmund Burke, Sir John presented the books to Trinity College in 1786. They include Brehon Law Commentaries, the Book of Leinster, and other important volumes.
A large and valuable acquisition was made in 1802, when the Library of M. Greffier Fagel, Pensionary of Holland, consisting of more than 20,000 volumes, was purchased by the Board of Erasmus Smith and presented to the College. The books had been removed to England for sale in 1794, when the French invaded Holland, and had been advertised by Mr. Christie for sale by auction March 1, 1802, and twenty-nine following days.