Welcome to ‘Birds at the Edward Worth Library’

The Edward Worth Library is a rare books collection, bequeathed to Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin, by Dr Edward Worth (1676–1733), who was one of the Hospital’s earliest Trustees. This web exhibition celebrates Worth’s wonderful books about birds and was curated by the Librarian of the Edward Worth Library, Dr Elizabethanne Boran, with photographic contributions from Dr Paolo Viscardi (Keeper of Natural History at the National Museum of Ireland); Mr Derek O’Reilly (member, BirdWatch Ireland); Dr Dominique Crowley (artist); and Mr Antoine Mac Gaoithín (Worth Library staff). It is the nineteenth in a series of websites exploring the holdings of the Worth Library. For further details please contact our website: https://edwardworthlibrary.ie/.

Conrad Gessner, Historiae animalium … (Frankfurt, 1617), p. 542: Blackbird.

The online exhibition explores both Worth’s books specifically about birds and others which include images of birds, for many of his natural histories were also important sources of information about birds in early modern Europe. Worth possessed some of the earliest and most authoritative texts about birds: works by sixteenth-century authorities such as Pierre Belon (1517–64), Conrad Gessner (1516–65), and Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), and seventeenth-century authors such as Joannes Jonstonus (1603–75). When it came to the classification of birds, the jewel in his collection was undoubtedly his copy of Ornithologiæ libri tres (London, 1676), by Francis Willughby (1635–72), and edited by John Ray (1627–1705).

Blackbird; Howth, Dublin (c) Derek O’Reilly.

Birds of all kinds flutter through the pages of his collection: fearsome birds of prey such as falcons, or owls that hunt by night; exotic birds such as birds of paradise and penguins; more familiar birds such as pigeons and perching birds such as finches; land fowl including chickens and hens; waterbirds such as swans, ducks and geese, and waders such as lapwings, redshanks and stilts. Large flightless birds such as ostriches and rheas; extinct birds such as the dodo and the solitary bird of Rodrigues Island; and perennial favourites such as hoopoes and parrots, not to mention a multitude of others – all may be found on the shelves of the Edward Worth Library. This exhibition deliberately follows Willughby and Ray’s approach, but it can only introduce you to just some of the birds lurking on pages in the Worth Library. The aim of this online exhibition (and all our online exhibitions), is to share our collections with you and introduce you to the wonderful resources of the Edward Worth Library. We welcome your feedback on our exhibition and can be contacted on our ‘Contact Us’ page.

If you would like to learn more about the National Museum of Ireland’s bird collections, NMI have recently made available their NMI Natural History Bird Collection – Dataset – data.gov.ie. If you would like to get involved in Ireland’s largest independent conservation organization, please contact BirdWatch Ireland. If you would like to enjoy more of Dominque Crowley’s beautiful paintings you may find out more about this gifted artist here. All errors in the text remain the Librarian’s!