Heritage Week: A Bolton Library A to Z (13th to 21st August 2022)

The Bolton Library - accumulated by two bishops - Archbishop William King and Bishop Theophilus Bolton in the early eighteenth century, reflects interests, knowledge, and concerns of that time. The history of science, technology and medicine is strongly represented in the collection, as is Irish history in the 1640-1660 period.

Now over five years in the University of Limerick, we invite you - A to Z - on a whistle-stop tour of the weird and the wonderful from the Bolton Library.

Taking you through this exhibition are some of the myriad of initials which we have encountered in the new cataloguing and conservation project of the collection. These initials are the descendants, in the handpress era, of the decorated initial, which was one of the characteristic features of medieval manuscript illumination. Each initial will take you to a new discovery in the Bolton Library in a virtual exhibition ranging from Banned Books through to Elixirated spirit of Scurvy Grass, and a medieval bathing King, the mysterious instrument Phagotum and all the way to Witchcraft and Expurgated.

Now as then, the initials continue to provide an opportunity to demonstrate skill, to record daily life, or to simply use one’s imagination.

We welcome you to the Bolton Library A-Z.

To access the online exhibition, which will be made available during Heritage Week (13th - 21st August), click here.