Franciscan Collection
UCD Library Special Collections holds a collection of c.5000 books, formerly kept in Franciscan friaries, which are now held by Special Collections with the support of the UCD-OFM partnership.
The Collection
The Franciscan collection at UCD contains materials dating from the 15th to the 20th centuries. The collection includes theology with emphasis on the Scholastics especially Duns Scotus, general religious and devotional works, Franciscana (teachings of St. Francis and the history and organisation of the order), Irish history, Irish language (including some very early publications in Irish), with smaller collections of English literature, travel and science. The collection contains many examples of the works to the great Irish Franciscan scholars like Florence Conry, Luke Wadding and John Colgan. Included are many rare items and some unique publications. Books published before 1501 are given the name ‘incunabula’; the collection has twenty-four of these books.
Provenance
The provenance of these books reflects presence of Irish Franciscan Friaries in continental Europe from the early 17th century. In 1606, Florence Conroy (Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire) established St. Anthony’s College in Louvain (Leuvan) Belgium . St Anthony’s was the first of a network of Irish Franciscan colleges in continental Europe. St isidore’s, Rome, followed in 1625 and finally the College of the Immaculate Conception at Prague in 1631. All these foundations were engaged in teaching and scholarship and had extensive libraries. The books’ provenance evidence also indicates movement of whole collections over the centuries between the colleges in Europe and to and from Ireland.
The reasons for this movement lies in the many turbulent periods in the histories of both Ireland and the Continent. Upheavals in Europe at many periods led to fears for the safely of the books. Louvain was suppressed and taken over by the French revolutionary army in 1798-1800 and eventually passed out of Franciscan ownership in 1822. Richard Francis Walsh, O.F.M. succeeded in getting many of the books in the Louvain library back to Wexford, by buying them officially from the last guardian there, James Cowan, and putting his own name on them.
In the 1870s, after the unification of Italy, it was feared that valuable books and manuscripts were not safe at St Isidore’s. A new library was built in the friary at Merchant’s Quay, Dublin and in 1872 much of the material from St Isidore’s was deposited there. In 1946 a new house of studies, Dún Mhúire, at Killiney, Co, Dublin, was established by the Franciscans and became a centre for the preservation and study of Franciscan books and manuscripts from the friaries in Ireland and Europe.
UCD-OFM Partnership
In 2000 the Irish Franciscans (Order of Friars Minor: OFM) and University College Dublin (UCD) agreed a legal partnership, administered by the UCD-OFM partnership committee, whereby The Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the Study of Irish History and Civilisation was established. It was agreed that some Franciscan archival and printed collections would be moved to UCD.
An initial consignment of 1300 books from an annexe at Killiney and twenty-four incunabula were moved to UCD. in 2006. A larger consignment was moved from the mezzanine floor of the Killiney library in May 2018.
The Franciscan Manuscripts, which include the Annals of the Four Masters, are held in UCD archives
Access and Use
- The material in this collection is available by appointment to students, teaching staff, and independent researchers. We also welcome interested members of the public.
- Please contact us at (opens in a new window)special.collections@ucd.ie for further information. To book an appointment (opens in a new window)click here.
More Information
Full processing of the book collection is underway, but to do full justice to material of such value, the cataloguing of it is, of necessity, a protracted process. The library catalogue holdings currently represent a small but increasing percentage of the total book collection. However, our staff have access to older listings for some of the material and will be glad to help you if you have any queries regarding the collection.
References
A list of the Franciscan incunabula held in UCD Library Special Collections is available in:
Fennessy, I. (2001) ”Alphabetical indexes for Irish Franciscan incunabula in Rome and Dublin”. (opens in a new window)Collectanea Hibernica: 43. (available through JSTOR on campus or through a UCD account).
For further provenance information see: Bhreathnach, Edel (2007), 'The Franciscan Library Killiney: the journey of a valuable historical repository from 1607 to 2007' Irish Archives, the Journal of the Irish Society for Archives: 14.
Bhreathnach, E., McMahon, J., McCafferty, J (eds.) (2009). The Irish Franciscans, 1534-1990. Dublin : Four Courts.
Conlan, P.(1988). Franciscan Ireland. Dublin : Lilliput Press