UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute Franciscan historic library project

Principal Investigator: Dr John McCafferty

Team: Dr Edel Bhreathnach, UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute, Dr Joseph MacMahon OFM, Fr Louis Brennan OFM, Evelyn Flanagan (UCD Special Collections Librarian), Margaret Purcell MSc DIPLS.

Funding: UCD President’s Fellowship 2010/11 (Dr John McCafferty)

The objective of this project is to re-construct the contents of the seventeenth-century library of St Anthony’s College Louvain. It also involves cataloguing and conserving the significant collection of early printed books in the possession of the Irish Franciscan Order. The history of the printing press established by the friars at Louvain and its context as part of the printing culture of seventeenth-century Spanish Flanders will be traced as well as the history of individual books and friary collections. Work will be undertaken in repositories in Ireland, Belgium and Rome. The project also involves the conservation, cataloguing and scanning of 1,500 rare books from the Franciscan collection housed in UCD Special Collections (www.ucd.ie/library/special_collections).