Jason McElligott. Early modern female book owners: the evidence from Ireland’s first public library by History Hub

'Early modern female book owners: the evidence from Ireland’s first public library' by Dr Jason McElligott (Marsh’s Library Dublin).

Generations of students might have been forgiven for assuming that there were no women in early-modern Ireland. Over the past decade seminal works by Naomi McAreavey and Marie-Louise Coolahan (among others) have given voice to the literary agency of women during this period. Scholars are now increasingly aware of women in Irish history as authors and producers of manuscript and printed texts. This paper will examine the related questions of female book ownership and reading in earlymodern Ireland. Taking its methodology from case studies concerning Britain and continental Europe, it will examine the books in Marsh’s Library in Dublin (founded 1707) which were owned between the fifteenth- and seventeenth-centuries by women of the middling and upper sorts. It will sketch the ways in which these physical items can be used as historical sources to shine light on the interests, preoccupations and social networks of specific women, as well as suggesting more generally what it meant for women to own books in early-modern Ireland and Britain.

The 6th Annual Tudor & Stuart Ireland Interdisciplinary Conference took place at NUI Galway in August, 2016. The conference was generously supported by: an NUI Galway President's Award for Research Excellence (awarded to Prof. Steven Ellis); the Moore Institute, NUI Galway; the Discipline of History, NUI Galway and the Society for Renaissance Studies.

As in previous years the majority of papers were recorded for podcasting by https://soundcloud.com/real-smart-media in association with www.historyhub.ie. There are now more than 140 podcasts from previous Tudor and Stuart Ireland conferences freely available. To access this archive go to www.historyhub.ie/podcasts or visit tudorstuartireland.com