Old Library, Trinity College Dublin
Thomas Burgh's 18th-century library at Trinity College, with the barrel-vaulted Long Room and Book of Kells.
The Old Library at Trinity College Dublin was designed by Thomas Burgh, Surveyor General of Ireland, and built between 1712 and 1732. Raised on an open arcade so that books would sit above damp ground, it is the largest single-chamber library in Ireland. The upper floor is the Long Room, about 65 metres long, lined with oak bookcases and marble busts of writers and philosophers, and roofed since 1860 with the barrel vault designed by Deane and Woodward when a second gallery of shelving was added.
The library holds the Book of Kells, a lavishly decorated gospel manuscript of around AD 800 associated with the monastery at Kells in County Meath, together with the Book of Durrow and the Book of Armagh. The visit, known as the Book of Kells Experience, combines the manuscript and Long Room with digital exhibitions in the Red Pavilion. Luke Jerram's illuminated Earth sculpture Gaia currently hangs in the centre of the Long Room.
Highlights
- The Book of Kells, an illuminated gospel book of about AD 800
- The Long Room, some 65 metres of oak bookcases and marble busts
- The 1860 barrel-vaulted ceiling by Deane and Woodward
- Luke Jerram's Gaia sculpture suspended in the Long Room
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