Trinity College Library

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Trinity College Old Library building.
The Long Room, built in 1732, is 64 meters long.
The Long Room during opening hours.
Words in wood and leather. Bookshelf in the Long Room.
The Long Room in the 18th century. Watercolor by James Malton (1761–1803).

The library of Trinity College Dublin ( English Trinity College Library, Dublin ; Irish Leabharlann Choláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath ) is the university library of the renowned Trinity College in Dublin, founded in 1592 . It is Ireland's largest and most impressive library and home to 4.5 million volumes and a large collection of historical manuscripts, manuscripts, incunabula and other early prints of the Bible .

building

The library has expanded over time to include several buildings, four of which are on the campus of Trinity College itself and one in St. James's Hospital:

  • the old library, which unites:
    • the reading room for early prints
    • the manuscript reading room
  • the Berkeley-Lecky-Ussher Library Complex (BLU) with:
    • the Berkeley Library
    • the Lecky Library
    • the James Ussher library (including the multimedia area)
    • the Glucksman card library with restoration department
  • the Hamilton Science and Engineering Library
  • the reading room from 1937 (use only by graduates)
  • the John Stearne Medical Library (in St. James's Hospital)

Old library

The most important of the five library buildings is the Old Library , built between 1712 and 1732 by Thomas Burgh (1670–1730), chief engineer and general inspector for fortifications of the British king . The books were placed on the upper floor over an open colonnade to protect them from moisture during floods. There is still the main hall, the Long Room , a 64 meter long and 12 meter wide vaulted hall. It consists of a main floor and a gallery. The hall is crowned by an imposing barrel vault. In front of the bookshelves on the main floor are busts of men highly regarded for their erudition to adorn the library, including those of Homer , Plato , Aristotle , William Shakespeare , Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle .

The hall had a flat plaster ceiling when it was built. Double benches were set up in each shelf niche. The busts of scholars were also at the level of the gallery, as shown by a Malton painting. In 1858 the library had to be enlarged due to a lack of space. Deane and Woodward's architectural office suggested removing the flat ceiling, raising the roof level and adding a barrel-vaulted oak ceiling. This enabled the gallery to be equipped with higher bookshelves. The busts were moved to their current location. In 1891 the colonnade on the first floor was walled up and the open arches were replaced by windows. Two thirds of the space gained in this way was used as a book store. Since then, the appearance of the building and the Long Room has remained almost unchanged.

In addition to the library's 200,000 oldest books, the Long Room also displays interesting items from Trinity College, including a copy of the Easter Proclamation for the proclamation of the Republic of Ireland on April 24, 1916 and the ornate Celtic harp , which legend says Property of the legendary Brian Boru , who died in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 , which cannot be proven, because according to current knowledge the harp was only built around 500 years after Boru's death. Still, at least 500 years old, it is the oldest harp in Ireland; it served as a template for the Irish national coat of arms and the symbol on Irish coins - previously on those of the Irish pound , now on Irish euro coins - as well as for the Guinness mark.

The most famous work in the book collection is the Book of Kells , one of the finest examples of illuminated medieval manuscripts, which was written around 800 AD. It will be exhibited in separate rooms on the ground floor of the library building, the Colonnades. The Books of Durrow , Armagh and Dimma are equally valuable .

Copyright Library

Since the Act of Union 1800 , the unification of Great Britain with Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on January 1, 1801, the library of Trinity College as a so-called Copyright Library has a right to a deposit copy of all in the present Republic of Ireland as well as in the United States Kingdom publications. It is the only Irish library that has such a right for the United Kingdom. This legal deposit stems from the UK Copyright Act 1911 of December 16, 1911 , which also gave the Trinity College Library the right to request a copy from the publisher. Although Ireland has long been an independent state, this right has remained unchanged. All subsequent British and Irish library laws have endorsed Trinity College library as a statutory archival library.

According to the currently valid British Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, there is an obligation to deposit only to the British National Library in London. The other five archive libraries - the Bodleian Library of Oxford University , the Cambridge University Library , the library of Trinity College Dublin, the National Libraries of Wales and of Scotland - only have the right to request from the issuer within twelve months after the publication of a copy that it must deliver within one month. The Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries is responsible for the coordination and distribution to all five libraries .

In addition, under the Irish Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 , publishers of works published in Ireland are required to submit copies to the Irish Archive Libraries Committee - the National Library of Ireland , Trinity College library at Dublin, the library of the University of Limerick , the library of Dublin City University - and to deliver to the four constituent universities of the National University of Ireland .

literature

  • Charles Benson; Paul Corrigan: Trinity College Library, Dublin. (German edition), Trinity College Dublin Press, Dublin 2003, ISBN 1-87140-822-9

Web links

Commons : Trinity College Library  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Copyright Act 1911 at Wikisource
  2. ^ Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 in the English language Wikipedia
  3. ^ Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries in the English language Wikipedia
  4. ^ Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 , Section 198

Coordinates: 53 ° 20 ′ 38 "  N , 6 ° 15 ′ 24.5"  W.