Frozen in time: the Fagel Collection in the Library of Trinity College Dublin

Abstract

"'Hendrik Fagel the Younger (1765-1838), Greffier or Chief Minister of Holland, had the misfortune to have his property seized by invading French forces in the winter of 1794-5, but managed to secure the release of his family art collection and library, which were shipped to him in London in 1798. Being in straitened circumstances he decided to sell them and negotiations took place for the purchase of the Library for Trinity College.' So begins Charles Benson's introduction to Frozen in Time, a collection of the papers presented at the recent Fagel Symposium, held at Trinity College, Dublin, with the explicit purpose of making this astonishing resource better known outside College walls. During their two centuries of public service to the States-General and Holland, the Fagel family built up one of the most important private libraries in early modern Europe, with holdings in history, politics and law as well as every other area of human endeavour: belles lettres, philosophy and theology, geography and travel, natural history and the visual arts. This lavishly illustrated volume contains a selection of the papers presented at the symposium as well as new articles, covering subjects as diverse as early Dutch book collections and plans of the cosmos, botanical sales catalogues, pamphlets on the bloody 1641 Rebellion in Ireland, Italian Renaissance poetry and the vicissitudes of the Huguenots. As the first comprehensive study of this hugely important and hitherto relatively unknown collection - one of the most important private libraries in early modern Europe - the volume will be of immense value to scholars and general readers"--Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction / Charles Benson -- Libraries, scholae and universities in medieval and early modern Europe: key stages in their relationship / Helga Robinson-Hammerstein -- 'To put in order': how the greffiers Fagel documented themselves as men of politics, men of religion and men of the world / Theo Thomassen -- Tulips and building plans: primary material from the Fagel Collection / John Loughman -- The Fagel Collection: from Den Haag to Dublin / Peter Fox -- Thematic shelving in the Old Library: the evidence of the Fagel Collection / Jason Harris -- Developing the Fagel map collection / David Brown -- The place of neo-Latin in the Fagel collection / Jason Harris -- Italian literature and humanist scholarship in the Fagel collection / Clare E.L. Guest -- Dutch interest in Irish affairs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as evidenced by Fagel collection / Timothy R. Jackson -- Don't worry about Pandora, throw the box wide open: some thoughts on revealing the riches of the Fagel collection / William A. Kelly -- Fagel, pamphlets and the STCN file / Jaap Harskamp.