Major Funding for Fagel Collection

Exciting news from Dublin and The Hague today: The Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands and Trinity College Library, Dublin announced that there is major funding available for the conservation and cataloguing of the Dutch eighteenth century Fagel collection at Trinity College Library.

Trinity College Dublin (the Library) and the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute (the Hub) are embarking on a milestone three-year project in 2020, in full collaboration with the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (the National Library of the Netherlands, the KB), to digitally record every book and pamphlet in the Fagel collection. This collection, as regular visitors of this web site know, is one of the finest 18th century private libraries of Europe. It was built up over the course of a century by the Fagel family in the Dutch Republic, before it came to Dublin in 1802.

Dedication to Hendrik Fagel in Bachienne's Kerkelyke Geographie
Dedication to Hendrik Fagel in Bachienne’s Kerkelyke Geographie. Dublin, Trinity College Library, Fag.B.7.14-15.

From February to April 2019 I had the privilege to work with the collection. In two months I could study at best five to ten percent of the entire collection. During that time, close to 2500 copies have been entered to the Short-Title Catalogue, Netherlands (STCN). Ten percent of the recorded editions are, as far as we know, the only surviving copies of these particular editions. These statistics were one of the cornerstones of an application for funding, that has now been granted (three years, total of € 500.000) by the Dutch The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ).

Now, over two hundred years since arriving in Dublin, the Unlocking the Fagel Collection project will open the collection up to a global audience of scholars and to all lovers of cultural heritage. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek will be happy to digitally incorporate a collection that left The Hague over two centuries ago. The Fagel Collection will be a wonderful addition to the STCN, national bibliography of the Netherlands before 1800. For Trinity College it is the first important step in their ambitions to digitally re-unite the full collection with associated collections around the world (in the Virtual Trinity Library, a pillar of their campaign ‘Inspiring Generations‘).

Blog Posts about the Fagel Collection

Fellowship at Trinity Long Room Hub
A brief history of Dutch research in the Fagel collection
Fagel Fellowship: Results at a glance
Royal visit to Trinity College
Podcast Fagel Collection

Fagel Fine Bindings (1): Natural History
Fagel Fine Bindings (2): Political Power
Fagel Fine Bindings (3): Dedications
Video about the treasures of the Fagel Collection

Sole Survivors in the Fagel Collection
A New Year’s Salute from the Amsterdam Lamplighters’ Guild
The postal map of Jacob Quack

Long Room
The Long Room of the Old Library
%d bloggers like this: