Marsh's Library

Written in the stars! The astrological birth chart of the perfect musician. From Marin Mersenne's Les Preludes de l'harmonie universelle, printed in Paris in 1634.

Happy St Patrick's Day! Very different maps of Ireland from Abraham Ortelius' Parergon c.1590 and Moll's Atlas Minor, c.1732

Maps of Scotland, France, and Ireland for the weekend that's in it! #SixNations

Currently setting up our new exhibition on #Swift and #GulliversTravels to mark 300 years since its publication. We're particularly happy with this staging of A Modest Proposal (1729), for which thanks to Joan Moynihan.

An unusual panel on this 16th century binding, possibly Swiss? It covers Martin Bucer's Du royaume de Jesus Christ nostre saveur printed in Geneva in 1558 #Bindings

Denis the Carthusian hard at work in his study, on the title page of his biography from 1532 #TitlePageTuesday

A blanket of blossom, bird song, & sunshine in the Close; spring has made a welcome return this morning!

The manuscript is mid-15th century

Some blingy books for world book day. On the left a manuscript of Caesar's Gallic Wars, written on vellum, that once belonged to the king of France. On the right, our earliest printed book, the letters of Cicero to his friends printed on paper in 1472. Shiny! #WorldBookDay

An exciting call for artists' residencies here in Marsh's Library and in the National Museum of Ireland: visualartists.ie/advert/open-ca…

The music to cure 'tarantism', a frenzied state thought to be caused by a tarantula bite. From the third ed. of Magnes, Athanasius Kircher's work on magnetism, printed in 1654

A very meta query from 1691: A reader of the advice column The Athenian Gazette asks why the authors answer silly questions. The answer: 'everyone who sends any question thinks both himself and his question as wise as he that sent this'.

A potted carnation from 1552, printed from a woodblock & then hand-coloured

Recipes for laudanum added by our first Librarian Élie Bouhéreau (1643-1719) to one of his medical books. The first is Thomas Sydenham's famous tincture, the other a recipe Bouhéreau picked up on his travels in Paris.

A very pleasing acanthus border on this title page printed in 1525. Note the sliver of medieval manuscript fragment, used in the binding, peeking out! #TitlePageTuesday #Fragments

A reader added a fetching cuff to their 'manicule', a pointing finger used to indicate an important passage in Justus Jonas' commentaries on the acts of the apostles, printed in Basel 501 years ago #ManiculeMonday #MondayMarginalia

Suggestions for how to stay well & live to 100 from 1683 include rinsing your mouth out with wine (or cider) to keep your gums healthy & snorting powder of rhubarb, cause what doesn't rhubarb cure!

This 1594 edition of the works of Virgil was given to H. Bouhereau in 1613. It was kept in the family & travelled with our first librarian, Élie Bouhéreau (1643-1719) from his native La Rochelle to exile in Dublin, where it has been on the shelves of Marsh's Library since 1707.

Happy Lunar New Year! This beautiful specimen is from our 1668 edition of 'Markham's master-piece ... touching on curing all diseases in horses', a seminal text on horse care #LunarNewYear #YearOfTheHorse

16th century violets, and those in the garden, a bit damp but still going strong #ValentinesDay