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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2015
At first glance the low yield of books produced by the Dublin printing presses for circulation in early Stuart Ireland could lead to two hasty conclusions: first, that Irish society was unreceptive towards reading; and second, that the printing presses had to contend with a very small (literate) target audience. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. In recent years Raymond Gillespie has done much to dispel these suppositions. His appraisal of English port books, printing press accounts from the continent and library borrowing lists plainly demonstrates the appetite of an interested reading public in Ireland. The value of analysing book loaning lists was further underlined by William O'Sullivan when he partially revealed the borrowing records belonging to the historian and antiquarian, Sir James Ware. In so doing, he drew attention to the potential of a deeper exploration of Irish cultural and intellectual life.
1 Mcclintock Dix, E. R., Catalogue of early Dublin-printed books, 1601 to 1700: part I, 1601 to 1625; part II, 1626 to 1650 (Dublin, 1898-9).Google Scholar
2 Gillespie, Raymond, Reading Ireland: print, reading and social change in early modern Ireland (Manchester, 2005);Google Scholar idem, Seventeenth-century Dubliners and their books (Dublin, 2005); idem, ‘The circulation of print in seventeenth-century Ireland’ in Studia Hibernica, xxix (1995-97), pp 31-58; idem, ‘Irish printing in the early seventeenth century’ in Irish Economic and Social History, xv (1988), pp 81–8.
3 Gillespie, Raymond, ‘Borrowing books from Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, 1607’ in Long Room, 43 (1998), pp 15–19.Google Scholar See also Boran, Elizabethanne, ‘The libraries of Luke Challoner and James Ussher, 1595–1608’ in Robinson-Hammerstein, Helga (ed.), European universities in the age of Reformation and Counter Reformation (Dublin, 1998), pp 109–15.Google Scholar
4 O’Sullivan, William, ‘A finding list of Sir James Ware’s manuscripts’ in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C, xcvii (1997), pp 71–2Google Scholar.
5 O’Sullivan, , ‘;A finding list of Sir James Ware’s manuscripts’, pp 69–77;Google Scholar Empey, Mark, ‘“Value-free” history? the scholarly network of Sir James Ware’ in History Ireland, 20, no. 2 (Mar/Apr. 2012), pp 20–3;Google Scholar Wilson, Philip, ‘The writings of Sir James Ware and the forgeries of Robert Ware’ in Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 15 (1920), pp 83–94.Google Scholar
6 Ford, Alan, James Ussher: theology, history, and politics in early-modern Ireland and England (Oxford, 2007); CrossRefGoogle Scholar Muraíle, NollaigÓ (ed.), Mícheál O Cléirigh, his associates and St Anthony’s College Louvain (Dublin, 2008);Google Scholar Cunningham, Bernadette, The Annals of the Four Masters (Dublin, 2010);Google Scholar eadem, The world of Geoffrey Keating: history, myth and religion in seventeenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 2000); Franciscan Fathers (eds), Father Luke Wadding: commemorative volume (Dublin, 1957).
7 In addition to the bibliographic lists produced below, there are also two very rough drafts compiled by Ware which recorded manuscripts and books he loaned to friends between circa 1625 and 1631: B.L., Additional MS 4821, ff 239r, 242r.
8 This is based on the references to Adam Loftus, appointed lord chancellor in 1619, and Robert Rothe who died in 1622, and to the date of Sir Oliver Tuite’s baronetcy, 16 June 1622: Terry Clavin, ‘Loftus, Adam (1568?–1643), 1st Viscount Loftus of Ely’ and Terry Clavin, ‘Rothe, Robert (1550–1622), both in D.I.B.; Charles Mosley (ed.), Burke’s peerage, baronetage and knightage (107th edition, 3 volumes, Wilmington, 2003) iii,3954.
9 Oxford English Dictionary.
10 Ware, James, Archiepiscoporum Cassiliensium et Tuamensium vitae … quibus adijcitur historia Coenobiorum Cisterciensium Hiberniae (Dublin, 1626).Google Scholar
11 Ibid.; Ware, James, De Praesulibus Lageniae sive provinciae Dubliniensis (Dublin, 1628).Google Scholar
12 SirJames, Ware (ed.), The Historie of Ireland, collected by three learned authors (Dublin, 1633).Google Scholar It is worth noting that Molyneux’s editorial skills came in for sharp criticism from Hanmer’s nephew, John Hanmer, bishop of St Asaph. Writing to Ussher, Hanmer complained about the discovery of some defects ‘not only in orthography, by reason of the unskilfulness of the transcriber, but also in the sense, by reason of dissonancy in the coherence and the very context itself.’ Hanmer to Ussher, 28 May 1627 in The whole works of the most Rev. James Ussher, ed. C. R. Elrington (17 vols, Dublin, 1847-64), xv,378.
13 On Dempster’s provocative claims see his posthumous work Historia ecclesiastica gentis Scotorum (Bologna, 1627).
14 SirJames, Ware, De Scriptoribus Hiberniae (Dublin, 1639).Google Scholar
15 Having procured the reversion of the office of auditor general in 1613, Ware did not inherit the position until his father’s death in 1632 (T.C.D., MS 6404, ff 97v, 115r).
16 Roderick O’Flaherty to Edward Lhwyd, April 1708 (Bodl., MS Ashmole 1817a, f. 57r). See also, Sharpe, Richard (ed.), Roderick O’Flaherty’s letters to William Molyneux, Edward Lhwyd and Samuel Molyneux, 1696–1709 (Dublin, 2013), pp 32, 325.Google Scholar
17 B.L., Add. MS 4797, fol. 88v; B.L. Add. MS 4799, fols 45r-70r. See also John T. O’Donovan, 'The Annals of Ireland, 1443–1468 translated from Irish by Dudley Firbisse’ in The miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society, volume I (Irish Archaeological Society, Dublin, 1846), pp 198-302; Ó Muraíle, Nollaig, The celebrated antiquary: Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (c. 1600–1671): his lineage, life and learning (Maynooth, 2002), pp 247–63.Google Scholar
18 Selden, John, The duello, or single combat (London, 1610), p. A2v.Google Scholar
19 T.C.D., MS 6404, ff 62v, 108v, 121r; B.L., Additional MS 4784, f. 251r.
20 ‘A Journall touching the voyage in to the Ile of Ree in 1627’ (Bodl., MS Rawlinson B 480, ff 33r-42v). Ware marked his political career when he was chosen as a special envoy with Sir John Bingley to attend the English privy council on government business. See: Instructions from the lord deputy and council to the English privy council, 25 Feb. 1629 (Cal. S. P., Ire., 1625-32, p. 434).
21 At the forefront of the protestation was the former secretary of state, George Calvert, baron Baltimore (an Irish title). See Michael C. Questier (ed.), Newsletters from the Caroline court, 1631-1638: Catholicism and the politics of the personal rule (Camden Society, 5th series, xxvi, 2005), p. 4; Krugler, J. D., English and Catholic: the Lords Baltimore in the seventeenth century (Baltimore, 2004), pp 114–15.Google Scholar
22 Peter Caddell and Paul Harris, To the most illustrious archbishops and reverend bishops of Ireland, but more particularly to those of the province of Dublin their honourable lords, David Bishop of Osory, John of Fernes, Ross of Kildare, and Mathew Vicar Apostolicall of Laghlein (Roan, at the sign of the three lilies with Edmund Fitzours [i.e. Dublin Society of Stationers], 1632); Harris, Paul, The excommunication published by the L. archbishop of Dublin Thomas Flemming alias Barnwell friar of the Order of S. Francis, against the inhabitants of the diocesse of Dublin, for hearing the masses of Peter Caddell D. of Divinity, and Paul Harris priests, is proved not onely injust, but of no validity, and consequently binding to no obedience (Dublin, 1632).Google Scholar On the dispute between the secular and regular clergy in Ireland see O’Connor, Thomas, Irish Jansenists, 1600-70: religion and politics in Flanders, France, Ireland and Rome (Dublin, 2008), pp 149–70.Google Scholar
23 Clerk [John Southcot] to [Peter Biddulph], 20 Jan. 1632 in Questier (ed.), Newsletters from the Caroline court, 1631–1638, p. 46: ‘I suppose amongst other forbidden bookes you will gett the lay Cath[olics’] Declaration’.
24 On the Frankfurt book fair see Pettegree, Andrew, The book in the Renaissance (New Haven, 2010), pp 78–82;Google Scholar Westphal Thompson, James (ed.), The Frankfort book fair: the Francofordiense Emporium of Henri Estienne (Chicago, 1911).Google Scholar
25 It was very likely that Trinity library purchased the bi-annual catalogues for the purpose of improving and updating its holdings. In the 1620s, Ware compiled an extensive list of books that were of interest to him from Trinity’s library catalogue. Among the items he identified was the Frankfurt book catalogue between the years 1592 and 1600, which suggests that Ware regularly used the library to gain access to material he could not otherwise acquire (B.L., Add. MS 4821, f. 72v).
26 Ware shared a very close relationship with Molyneux, who was a keen genealogist of Gaelic families. In 1628, he thanked Molyneaux for loaning him the canons of the synod convened by the bishop of Ferns, John St. John, between 1223 and 1243: Ware, De Praesulibus Lageniae, p. 57.
27 Andrews was another useful contact. In November 1624 he transcribed a copy of the catalogue of St Mary’s cathedral library for Ware (Bodl., MS Rawl. B 480, ff 69r-78r).
28 Victor Stater, ‘Bourchier, Henry, fifth earl of Bath (c.1587-1654)’, in Oxford D.N.B.
29 See, for example, Williams, N.J.A. (ed.), Pairlement Chloinne Tomáis (Dublin, 1981), pp 83, 96–8.Google Scholar
30 Nerys Patterson, ‘Gaelic law and the Tudor conquest of Ireland: the social background of the sixteenth-century recensions of the pseudo-historical Prologue to the Senchas már’ in Irish Historical Studies, xxvii, no. 107 (May, 1991), pp 204-14.
31 Brian Mac Cuarta, ‘The plantation of Leitrim, 1620-H’ in Irish Historical Studies, xxxii, no. 127 (May, 2001), pp 297–320; Rolf Loeber and Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, ‘The lost architecture of the Wexford Plantation’ in Whelan, Kevin (ed.), Wexford: history and society (Dublin, 1987), pp 173–200.Google Scholar
32 Lord Esmonde to the Lord Dorchester, 9 May 1630 (Cal. S. P. Ire, 1625–32, p. 536); Sir Arthur Tyringham to Dorchester, 26 May 1631 (ibid., p. 612); Archbishop Ussher to Archbishop Laud, 22 Sept. 1631 (ibid., p. 631); Viscount Falkland to Sir James Dillon, 2 Jan.1633 (Falkland Letter Book, 1629-31, N.A.I., M 2445, f. 279); Falkland to Sir William Parsons, 18 Feb. 1633 (ibid., f. 286); Falkland to Viscount Ranelagh, 3 Mar. 1633 (ibid., f. 290).
33 Bernadette Cunningham and Raymond Gillespie, ‘Cultural frontiers and the circulation of manuscripts in Ireland, 1625–1725’ in Kelly, James and Mac Murchaidh, Ciarán (eds), Irish and English: essays on the Irish linguistic and cultural frontier, 1600–1900 (Dublin, 2012), pp 58–95.Google Scholar
34 Bernadette Cunningham and Raymond Gillespie, ‘James Ussher and his Irish manuscripts’ in Studia Hibernica, xxxiii (2004–2005), pp 81–99.
35 B.L., Add. MS 4821, ff 236v, 239r.
36 I would like to express my gratitude to the National University of Ireland for their generous financial assistance which has enabled me to pursue my research. I am also very grateful to Professor Raymond Gillespie for his comments and suggestions on an earlier draft.
37 For Ware’s copy see B.L., Add. MS 4784, fols 8r-19r. McAward appears in a lease made by the town officials on 20 May 1623: Blake, M. J., Blake family records, 1600–1700 (London, 1905), pp 30–1Google Scholar
38 Inserted in different ink.
39 Possibly the annals of Boyle, B.L., Cotton MS Titus A. XXV; A. Martin Freeman (ed. and trans.), ‘The annals in Cotton MS Titus A. XXV’ in Revue Celtique, xli (1924), pp 301-30; xlii (1925), pp 283-305; xliii (1926), pp 358-84; xliv (1927), pp 336-61. Sir John King had extensive landholdings that incorporated the site of the former Cistercian abbey at Boyle where he acted as constable: Anthony M. McCormack, ‘ King, Sir John (d. 1637)’in D.I.B.
40 Inserted in different ink. Terry Clavin, ‘Moore, Sir Garret (c.1566–1627), first Viscount Moore of Drogheda’ in D.I.B.
41 ‘Gathered’ or ‘collected’.
42 This was presumably the Black Book of Limerick which Ware consulted: B.L., Add. MS 4787, ff 71r-72r; Bodl., MS Rawlinson B 484, fol. 41v; The Black Book of Limerick ed. James MacCaffrey (Dublin, 1907). Andrews was dean of Limerick and precentor of St Patrick’s cathedral (1603-35) and later bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (1635–48): Helen Andrews, ‘Andrews, George (c.1575–1648)’ in D.I.B.
43 Thomas Moigne (d. 1629), bishop of Kilmore (1613–29): Sir F. Maurice Powicke and E. B. Fryde (eds), Handbook of British chronology (2nd edn, London, 1961), p. 359.
44 Andrew Knox, bishop of Raphoe (1610–33): Alan Ford, ‘Knox, Andrew (1559–1633)’ in D.I.B.
45 Ware made some notes in B.L., Add. MS 4791, fols 108r-108v. Edward King was bishop of Elphin 1611-39: Ciaran Diamond, ‘King, Edward (c.1576–1639)’ in Oxford D.N.B.
46 Sir Robert Cotton, English antiquarian and politician: Stuart Handley, ‘Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, first baronet (1571–1631)’ in Oxford DN.B.
47 When Ware published the obits of the archbishops of Cashel and Tuam in 1626 he noted in the entry for Archbishop Ralph Kelly that the letters were no longer extant: Ware, Archiepiscoporum Cassiliensium et Tuamensium vitae, pp 18–19.
48 Daniel Molyneux was Ulster King of Arms and principal herald of the kingdom of Ireland: Terry Clavin, ‘Molyneux, Daniel (1568–1632)’ in D.I.B.
49 This entry is written in pencil.
50 David Rothe was Catholic bishop of Ossory between 1618 and 1650: Thomas O“Connor, ‘Rothe, David (1573–1650)’ in D.I.B.
51 Edward Bolton was appointed solicitor general for Ireland on 5 February 1622: Robert Armstrong, ‘Bolton, Edward (1592–1659)’ in D.I.B.In the margin Ware makes a note: ‘Jo[hn] f[it]z Tho[mas] dwelt at Rathangan at 1288’.
52 Adam Loftus, whose main estate in Monasterevin incorporated the twelfth-century Cistercian monastery of Moore Abbey: Clavin, ‘Loftus, Adam’.
53 Probably the Red Book of Kildare, B.L., Harley MS 3758. This was most likely in the possession of the sixteenth earl of Kildare: Michéal Ó Siochrú, ‘Fitzgerald, George (1612–60), 16th earl of Kildare’ in D.I.B.
54 William Fleming, fourteenth Baron Slane: see Michéal Ó Siochrú, ‘Fleming, William (c. 1611? -1642), 14th Baron Slane’ in D.I.B.
55 David Roche (b. before 1588–1635), seventh Viscount Roche of Fermoy: Mosley (ed.), Burke’s peerage, baronetage and knightage, ii, 2238.
56 Sir Oliver Tuite (c. 1588–1642) of Sonnogh, County Westmeath: Mosley (ed.), Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, iii, 3954.
57 For Ware’s copy see B.L., Lansdowne MS 418, ff 43r-45v. See also Calendar of the Gormanston Register circa 1175–1397, eds James Mills and M. J. McEnery (Dublin, 1916); Anthony M. McCormack and Terry Clavin, ‘Preston, Jenico (Genico) (1585–1630), 5th Viscount Gormanston’ in D.I.B.
58 For Ware’s copy see B.L., Add. MS 4789, ff 99v-102v; Bodl., MS Rawl. B 496, ff 44r-70r. The original Rothe transcript is in the Dublin City Library, Gilbert MS 105 in which Rothe states that he obtained the original copy from a fellow Kilkenny native, Richard Shee. Robert Rothe, lawyer and antiquarian, was a cousin of Bishop David Rothe: see above, note 8.
59 For Ware’s copy see B.L., Add. MS 4793, ff 145r-146v.
60 The chapter book of Kilconnell is mentioned by Donatus Mooney, minister provincial of the Irish Franciscans, who made an official visitation of the Franciscan friaries in Ireland between 1615 and 1617. See Brendan Jennings, ‘Brussels MS. 3947: Donatus Moneyus, De Provincia Hiberniae S. Francisci’ in Analecta Hibernica, vi (Nov. 1934), p. 56.
61 Ware may have obtained this at a later stage. See B.L., Add. MS 4791, ff 153r-154r.
62 Italics indicate words inserted in different ink. Possibly William Hore of Harperstown, County Wexford. See John Burke, A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland (4 vols, London, 1838), iv, 718–19.
63 Ware made notes from the manuscript in B.L., Lansdowne MS 418, ff 47r-47v. George Andrews is acknowledged at the end of the transcript.
64 Presumably the register of the early thirteenth-century abbey of Great Conall. Sir Nicholas White lived in Leixlip, County Kildare. See G. E. Cokayne, et al. (eds), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant (new ed., 13 volumes in 14, London, 1910-59; reprinted in 6 volumes, Gloucester, 2000), iii, 28.
65 Bartholomew Downes, one of the king’s printers in Ireland: Pollard, Mary, A dictionary of the members of the Dublin book trade 1500–1800 (London, 2000), p. 166.Google Scholar
66 I.e. ten.
67 Willot, Henricus, Athenae orthodoxum sodalitii Franciscani (Liege, 1598).Google Scholar
68 Messingham, Thomas, Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae (Paris, 1624).Google Scholar
69 Hibernicus, Thomas, Flores Omnium pene doctorum (Lyon, 1567).Google Scholar
70 Gozzeo, Ambrosio, Catalogus virorum ex familia Praedicatorum in litteris insignium (Venice, 1605).Google Scholar
71 There are two possibilities for this entry which were penned by Petri Opmersensis (or Petrus Cratepoil). Either it was Omnium Archiepiscoporum Coloniensium ac Trevirensium Catalogus (Cologne, 1578) or Catalogus omnium totius prope orbis archiepisciporum episcoporumque (Cologne, 1596). The former is the more likely given Ware’s pending publication on the lives of the archbishops of Cashel and Tuam in 1626.
72 Thomas, Gratianus, Anastasis Augustiniana in qua Scriptores Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini (Antwerp, 1613).Google Scholar
73 Presumably a mart book from Belgium.
74 This could be Aubert Miraeus, Chronicon Cisterciensis Ordinis (Cologne, 1614).
75 Selden, John, Analecton Anglo Britannicon (Frankfurt, 1615).Google Scholar
76 Fitzherbert, Nicholas, Oxoniensis in Anglia Academiae Descriptio (Rome, 1602).Google Scholar
77 Probably Polydore Vergil’s Anglica Historia of which there were a number of editions.
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79 Richard Verstegan, A restitution of decayed intelligence in antiquities concerning the most noble and renowned English nation (Antwerp, 1605). Verstegan was also known as Richard Rowlands.
80 O’Sullivan Beare, Philip, Historiae Catholicae Iberniae compendium (Lisbon, 1621).Google Scholar
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82 Marius, Simon, Mundus Jovialis (Nuremburg, 1614).Google Scholar
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85 This must be a mistake by Ware as there is no book written by Crisòstomo Henriques with this title. He may have meantHenriques’s Fasciculus Sanctorum ordinis Cisterciensis (Brussels, 1623).
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96 Vedel, Nicholaus, Archanorum Arminianismi pars tertia (Lyon, 1634).Google Scholar
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