Friday 4 May 2012

Release of Irish Chancery Letters 1244-1509

A public lecture will take place next Thursday, 10 May, to mark the launch of a major Internet resource: A Calendar of Irish Chancery Letters dating from around 1244 to 1509. This collection, known as CIRCLE, has gone live at www.tcd.ie/chancery, together with loads of wonderful background material.

CIRCLE brings together all known letters enrolled on the Irish chancery rolls during the Middle Ages drawing on originals, facsimiles, transcripts and calendars located in archival repositories in The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and the USA. The project has taken the best part of 40 years.

The site contains over 20,000 Irish chancery letters translated from Latin into English, together with an unparalleled collection of digital images of surviving medieval chancery letters and rare printed volumes.

Next week's lecture, called Rediscovering Medieval Ireland and hosted by the Medieval History Research Centre of Trinity College Dublin, will introduce the new collection. The lecturer is Robin Frame.

Venue: Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre (Room 2043, Arts Building), TCD. Start time: 6pm. No booking is necessary and there is no charge. Everyone is invited.