- Wikidata identifier:
- Q17779528
- Also known as:
- Armagh Public Library, Armagh Robinson Library and No 5 Vicars Hill
- Instance of:
- public library; museum; library building
- Museum/collection status:
- Accredited museum
- Accreditation number:
- 1709
- Persistent shareable link for this record:
- https://museumdata.uk/museums/q17779528/
Collection-level records:
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Collection history (Collection development policy)
The basis of the collection is Archbishop Robinson’s personal library and collections, consisting of printed works, as well as manuscripts, prints, gem impressions, coins and medals. Items were added by Robinson’s brother, Sir Thomas Robinson, and by later Archbishops, including Marcus Gervais Beresford and Charles D’Arcy. The 19th century Keeper, William Reeves, added considerably to the Library’s collections during his tenure.
The Library continues to collect, with additions such as the archives of Archbishops JAF Gregg and Robin Eames, and the purchase of a collection of books on Jonathan Swik.
Source: Collection development policy
Date: 2023
Licence: CC BY-NC
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Collection overview (Collection development policy)
Books and manuscripts
The collection has some 51,000 entries covering a wide range of subjects. The basis of the collection was Archbishop Robinson’s personal library which contained approximately 8,000 17th and 18th century books on theology, philosophy, classic and modern literature, voyages and travels, history, medicine and law.
The earliest printed book is John Gerson’s De modo vivendi omnium fidelium, printed in Louvain in 1484. The collection of manuscripts includes medieval manuscripts on various religious and governmental subjects, as well as more recent manuscripts from local government, for example, Armagh Corporation Books : 1776-1814
Prints
The collection of engravings, including the Rokeby Collection which was donated to the Library by Archbishop Robinson, amounts to an impressive collection of over 4,000 prints.
Bound in volumes and as individual prints, the collection covers a span of some four centuries, including works by Vouet, Mellan, Goltzius, Hogarth, Piranesi, and the Sadeler family.
Drawings
A set of fifteen drawings by William Conor on the theme of St Patrick, purchased and accessioned in 2001.
Coins
Archbishop Robinson left his collection of coins to the Library. These have been listed and catalogued by the Ulster Museum. Indications are that the collection dates back to Robinson’s time and was systematically gathered with duplicating types to allow for both sides of coins to be displayed. The collection includes over 300 Roman imperial sestertii.
Gems
Accompanied by ‘A catalogue of impressions in sulphur of antique and modern Gems from which partes are made and sold by J. Tassie, 1775’, the gems were presented to the Library by Robinson who had cabinets made to house them.
Beresford Collection
Archbishop Marcus Gervais Beresford was a collector of bronzes, stone flints, axe heads and other archaeological objects which were left to the Library, following his death.
Archives
The archives of three Archbishops – John George Beresford (1822 – 1862), John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg (1938 – 1959), Robert Henry Alexander Eames (1986 – 2006) – are held in the Museum.
Source: Collection development policy
Date: 2023
Licence: CC BY-NC