Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Marsh’s Library Exhibition
A new exhibition entitled ‘Gutenberg’s Cradle’ has opened at Marsh’s Library, beside St Patrick’s cathedral in Dublin 8, and will run until next March. It offers a rare chance to see books printed in the decades immediately after the invention in the 1450s by Johannes Gutenberg of printing with moveable type.
Books printed before 1501 are known as incunables, a word derived from the Latin ‘incunabulum’ which means ‘cradle’. Marsh’s Library has 75 of these incredibly rare books from the period before print grew and matured into a force that would change the world.
A striking feature of the incunables on display is how quickly printers perfected the new technology. It was common for these books to be further ‘improved’ with hand–applied decoration. The gold leaf on a 1472 copy of Cicero’s Letters to Friends and a 1482 copy of Astesanus’ Cases of Conscience is as exquisite today as when it was applied over 500 years ago.
Many of the books contain ownership inscriptions or comments on the text left by their first owners. Among the two dozen items on display are three separate editions of a history book entitled Fasciculus Temporum which became a best–seller due to its use of woodcut images to depict cities, famous historical figures, and extraordinary events such as comets, eclipses, and monstrous births.
The exhibition catalogue by the Italian scholar Sara D’Amico is a thing of beauty and will no doubt be a collectors’ item in years to come.
Entry to the library is €7, with concessions for students and senior citizens priced at €4. Under–18s are admitted for free. The Library, founded in 1707 by the then Archbishop of Dublin, Narcissus Marsh, is open 9.30–5 Tuesday to Friday and 10–5 on Saturdays. Further details available at www.marshlibrary.ie
Today (Friday) Summer Music at Sandford concludes in Sandford parish church, Ranelagh, at 1.10pm with a recital by pianist Francesca Maria Villani.
Athlone union of parishes will host its annual open air service in Clonmacnoise, adjacent to Templeconnor church, on Sunday at 4.00pm. The guest preacher will be the Revd Philip McKinley, Curate Assistant in the Dioceses of Meath & Kildare. The maintenance of Templeconnor church is entirely funded by Athlone union of parishes, relying solely on the generosity of individuals for its preservation. The OPW oversees the maintenance of the remainder of the site. Donations collected during the service will be directed towards the Kildare Centre of Mission and ongoing restoration works at Temple Connor church.
At the end of July Pauline Dunlop will retire from the staff of Church of Ireland House after over 40 years’ service most recently as Manager of Investment Accounting. Her career has been characterized by an acute intelligence, an abundance of common sense, a remarkable work ethic, a good sense of humour and a deep but not uncritical loyalty to the institution which she has served so well.
Published in the Friday edition of The Irish Times