Narcissus Marsh

Marsh’s Library, the first public library in Ireland (and one of Ireland’s oldest libraries), retains its original interior fittings. The four main collections (for a total of 25,000 volumes) include texts from the 16^th, 17^th and early 18^th centuries; the largest of these is the Edward Stillingfleet collection (nearly 10,000 volumes), along with those of John Stearne (1660-1745), Bishop of Clogher, who left his books to Marsh’s Library in 1745, of Elias Bouhéreau, and of Marsh himself.
The library holds books in various languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish and Russian, and of many different fields and subjects, as well as about 300 manuscripts. Books and periodicals about the history of Ireland, printed in the last 100 years, are held in a separate section of the library.

Studies on the library: N.J.D. White, An Account of Archbishop Marsh’s Library, Dublin, Dublin, Hodges Figgis & Co. 1926; M. McCarthy, Marsh’s Library: All Graduates and Gentlemen, Dublin, The O’Brien Press 1980; The Making of Marsh’s Library: Learning, Politics and Religion in Ireland, 1650-1750, ed. by M. McCarthy and A. Simmons, Dublin, Four Courts Press 2004; M.M. Foot, The Decorated Bindings in Marsh’s Library, Dublin, Aldershot, Ashgate 2004.