Amazon.com description: Product Description: This beautifully illustrated hardback volume examines the nationally and internationally important holdings of the Library of the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin). The book not only celebrates the diversity of the works that the library curates, but it is also an exploration of: the nature and origins of the collections and artifacts, the people who have shaped and commented on them over the course of time, and the ways in which this major national resource has enhanced the understanding of Ireland, its people, and its place in the world. The book discusses the library's collection of over 1,400 manuscripts in the Irish language, the records of the 19th-century Ordnance Survey, rare scientific and natural history imprints, the incomparable Haliday Pamphlet and Tract collections, the rich Forde-Pigot collection of Irish airs, and thousands of antiquarian drawings that cover the entire island.