The collections at Armagh Robinson Library & No 5 do not only cover printed works, such as books, journals and pamphlets. The Library also holds collections of ancient and medieval coins, commemorative medals and sulphur gems, prints, atlases, and manuscripts.
Atlases & Maps
The library collections hold a number of atlases and maps, covering areas as wide as the entire world, and as small as townlands. The 17th and 18th century atlases are of international importance. The 1835 Ordnance Survey maps of all of Ireland are a huge draw for local historians and family historians.
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Manuscripts
The Library collections holds 307 manuscripts, including 15 from the Medieval period, and 9 from the 15th Century. The earliest manuscript dates from the late twelfth century.
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Books
The library holds many early books on mathematics, astronomy, science, architecture, medicine, numismatics, horticulture, history, politics, law and seventieth and eighteen century atlases and travel books.
There are a significant number of rare books of national and international importance, for example the 1640-60 Catalogue of the Second Viscount Conway’s Library, Jonathan Swift’s personal annotated copy of Gulliver’s Travels, John Gerson’s De praeceptis decalogi, printed in Strasburg, 1488; Sir Walter Raleigh’s the Discovery of Guiana, 1600; Jeremiah Rich’s shorthand New Testament of 1659, and the seventeenth and eighteenth century atlases such as The English Atlas by Moses Pitt, London: 1680-1683 and Thomas Jeffreys’ The American Atlas. […], London: 1776 .
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Coins, medals and Gems
The Library’s founder, Archbishop Richard Robinson, had a keen interest in numismatics, the study or collection of currency. He collected a large number of coins, and many books on the subject, all of which are held in the Library.
The coin collection has Roman, as well as Scottish, English, Irish, Greek and Portuguese pieces with varying dates and denominations.
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Print collection
The Library holds an impressive collection of over 3,700 prints, both bound in volumes and individual prints. The collection comprises fifteenth- to nineteenth century prints, including those by Vouet, Mellan, Goltzius, Hogarth, Piranesi, and the Sadeler family.
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