Almost a century and a half later, the same principle was used to print a map of Ireland's biological vice-counties in T. K. McCarthy's 1975 paper on freshwater leeches in the RIA Proceedings. These blocks show how relief printing remained part of scholarly publishing well into the 20th century! 2/2

Two printing blocks; almost 150 years apart! In 1827, this block was used to print a facsimile of a handwritten statement by Fr Thomas Maguire, authenticating the published report of his public debate with Rev. Richard Pope on the doctrines of the Catholic Church. 1/2

The manuscript of the week is RIA MS 23 E 25, Lebor na hUidre/Book of the Dun Cow. It was written in Irish at Clonmacnoise before 1106 A.D. In 2012, with @ceilteachomn.bsky.social, we held a conference on the book. The papers were published as Codices Hibernenses Eximii I & recordings are available.

We're delighted to announce that images of an Icelandic manuscript in the Royal Irish Academy collection have been added to handrit.is. Handrit is a joint electronic catalogue of Icelandic manuscripts preserved in Iceland and abroad. It is a project of the National and University Library of Iceland.

A Member with a great sense of humour! Harold G. Leask MRIA (1882-1962) was an architectural historian and archaeologist. We are updating records for a set of offprints of his work. Leask had them bound in four volumes, which carry his rather wonderful bookplate!

It is, indeed, a heartache. 😞 Rest in peace, Bonnie. (Solar eclipse, glass plate, 1905, photographer: Aidan Liddell. Royal Irish Academy)

Thank you to everyone who braved the heatwave to join us for @liber-ray.bsky.social's Curator's talk and tour of Ink & Innovation!

What links this 1496 astronomical tract and the first President of Ireland? 📖🔎 Come find out tomorrow at our lunchtime Curator's Talk and Tour of the 'Ink & Innovation' exhibition by @liber-ray.bsky.social! Last few tickets available through the link below: www.tickettailor.com/events/royal...

The manuscript of the week is RIA MS 23 D 17, the Ó Cléirigh Genealogies. The scribe of this mid-17th C genealogical manuscript was Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, one of the compilers of the Annals of the Four Masters.

Oh dear! The angle of the first image certainly makes it look unbelievable, but hopefully this image makes it clearer! The knife wielder was impressive, on one sense!

Admittedly, the positioning of the RIA Library stamps in the past was not always ideal... but the effort made by someone to remove them from this book seems excessive!

A reminder to researchers and visitors that the Reading Room and the "Ink & Innovation" exhibition is closed today. They will both be closed on Thursday also, due to staff events and training. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS 23 P 10(ii), the Book of O’Lees. This medical manuscript contains a translation from Latin into Irish of a highly organised medical treatise, with 44 tables outlining details of diseases, each divided into 99 compartments, across, aslant, and vertical.

🥵 So hot even the earth is wearing a sun hat! Les Terres du Ciel (Paris, 1884) by Camille Flammarion. A renowned French astronomer, many of Flammarion's works were deposited by J.E. Gore MRIA, his English language translator. This section criticises Pope Clement VIII's suppression of heliocentrism.

Here is a beautiful baby binding, and also, we are on 1,399 followers. 🫡

Dr Alison Ray gave a curator's tour of our exhibition, Ink & Innovation, during Re-mediating the Early Book Pasts and Futures (REBPAF) conference today. The conference is taking place over three days at the Royal Irish Academy. We're delighted to share our wonderful incunables with the conference!

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS 23 P 26, the Book of Fenagh. Written in Irish in 1516 for Tadhg Ó Rodaighe, hereditary comharb of St Caillín in Fenagh. It is written on good quality vellum and contains prose and verse. The writing is in double columns and some capital letters are filled in red.

Working very hard on important reshelving work this Thursday afternoon... and definitely not getting distracted by enormous colour engravings of corpse flowers. Transactions of the Linnean Society, Vol. 13.

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS D ii 3, the Stowe Missal. Written in Latin between A.D. 792-803, the Stowe Missal is a Mass-book of the early Irish Church, small enough to be carried around for the use of a priest on his travels.

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS 23 P 2, the Book of Lecan. The manuscript is an early 15th-century compilation of Irish genealogical, historical, biblical and hagiographical material.

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS 23 P 6, The Annals of the Four Masters. This volume is one of a three volume set and covers the year A.D. 1170-1499. Each year’s entry is marked with a heading, “Aois Cr[íost]” or “Age of Christ” followed by the year in Arabic numerals and written in Irish below.

We are delighted that an image of the Cathach has been included in an exhibition at Hereford Cathedral, "Shaping Early Medieval Faith: the Hereford Gospels". Research has discovered palimpsest material in the Hereford Gospels which means the parchment was used twice...

It is the last Friday of the month, which means the Cathach of Columcille (RIA MS 12 R 33) is on display from 10am - 4.30pm. The Cathach is the oldest extant Irish manuscript of the Psalter and very likely the earliest example of the form of Irish writing known as insular majuscule script.

Our wonderful colleague Rebecca Cairns is presenting her poster, The Birds of Ireland: Curating the Richard J. Ussher Collection, at @conulconference.bsky.social today! Congratulations, Rebecca! 👏👏👏

From the astronomical to the mathematical - we are enjoying diagrams this week! Read our latest blog by Dr Philip Beeley on an early edition of Euclid's 'Elements of Geometry' in the RIA Library collection, currently displayed as part of our exhibition, 'Ink & Innovation'. www.ria.ie/blog/the-ria...

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS B ii 1. It contains an Irish translation of medieval Latin texts including an astronomical tract based on a medieval Latin version of a work by Messahalah, a Jew of Alexandria who wrote in Arabic c. 815, and a medical treatise by Petrus Musantinus.

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS 23 P 12, the Book of Ballymote. It was compiled in AD 1391 at Ballymote, Co Sligo and contains genealogical, historical, topographical, biblical and hagiographical material. One of the most visually striking sections is a key to the Ogham alphabet.

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS C vi 1, the Book of Knockninny. It was compiled in 1718 for Brian Mág Uidhir of Knockninny, Co. Fermanagh. It contains a selection of historical poems & prose texts, & is a reworking of an older compilation made in 1638 for Brian Mac Cú Chonnacht Mág Uidhir.

The MS of the Week is on display in the Reading Room of the Library this week from 10.00-16.30, Tuesday - Thursday. Please note the Reading Room is closed on Friday for a staff event. No appointment or reader’s ticket is required to view the MS of the Week.