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Librarian from Ireland to speak at UW-Madison, March 23
By Katie Gilbert
Library Communications
Posted 3/4/2004
MADISON, Wis. -- The librarian for Ireland’s first public library will speak at the Pyle Center Auditorium Tuesday, March 23, from 3:30-5 p.m. The lecture by Muriel McCarthy, titled "Simony, Sacrilege, and Perjury: Marsh’s Library," will be held in room 121.
McCarthy is the Keeper of Marsh's Library, which now includes more than 25,000 books from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The library was founded more than 300 years ago with 10,000 volumes from Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713), provost of Trinity College and archbishop of Dublin.
McCarthy recently received an honorary degree from University College Dublin for her work at the library, which included restoration and expansion of the facilities. She has authored a book, Marsh's Library: All Graduates and Gentlemen and compiled many exhibition catalogs about the library, including This Golden Fleece: Marsh's Library 1701-2001 and The Triumph of Antiquity.
A scholar at heart, Marsh enjoyed the sciences—evident in his collection of science, medicine and math books—but also acquired works in Russian, Turkish, Hebrew and Arabic. In 1705, he purchased a collection of 10,000 volumes for 2,500 pounds from Edward Stillingfleet, which became the foundation for the library.
This lecture is cosponsored by the Celtic Studies Program and the Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries.
