The Fagel Collection is a collection assembled by the , a prominent political family in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

during the

Early Modern Period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

, which now resides at the Library of Trinity College Dublin. Comprising 30,000 printed books, as well as manuscripts, maps, and other engraved materials, making it one of the most prolific collections in Europe. Topics covered include domestic and international history and politics, natural history, geography, literature, and theology. Materials within the collection come from many different countries and are in multiple languages, most commonly Dutch, French, and English. Related collections are housed at the National Archives of the Netherlands in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

History

In 1680, (1617-1690) bought the real estate for what would become the Fagel family's dwelling and home of their enormous library on the prestigious street of Noordeinde in The Hague. (1659-1746) kept his collections, not only print material but also coins and graphic arts, in the gallery leading to a pavilion now known as the . The collecting spanned generations, with François the Elder and (1706-1790) contributing especially to the library. After the death of Hendrik the Elder, his grandson, (1765-1838), inherited the library. Hendrik the Younger was abroad when, in 1795, French forces invaded the Dutch Republic and he was dismissed from his post as . Financial constraints resulting from his expulsion prompted Hendrik the Younger to transport his family's library to London where he proceeded to sell it. Koepel van Fagel 2024

Acquisition by Trinity College Dublin

Hendrik Fagel the Younger originally intended to sell his vast family collection at auction and commissioned a catalogue for this purpose. The sale was to be held at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

auction house, but it never took place. With funding from the Erasmus Smith Trust, the books, manuscripts, and maps that now make up the Fagel Collection were bought for the Library of Trinity College Dublin for £8,000. The carefully packed collection arrived in Dublin in May of 1802, where it bolstered the library's capacity by 40 percent. As a new room had to be built and older collections rearranged to accommodate the bulk of the addition, the Fagel library, as it was locally known, at Trinity College Dublin was opened on 1 March 1809.

Print

The majority of Trinity College Dublin's Fagel Collection is made up of printed works and it originally functioned as a working or reference library for the Fagel family while they served, successively, as greffiers. Trinity's Fagel Collection holds the Trinity College Plutarch, a two volume edition of Greek philosopher Plutarch's assemblage of biographies, ''

Parallel Lives * Culture of ancient Greece Culture of ancient Rome Ancient Greek biographical works Ethics literature History books about ancient Rome Cultural depictions of Gaius Marius Cultural depictions of Mark Antony Cultural depictions of Cicero ...

''. This edition was printed in Latin on fine parchment and set in Roman type by Nicolaus Jenson, illuminated by the Master of the London Pliny in Venice, Italy during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, around 1478. The collection also contains thirty-six plays published by Thomas Johnson in The Hague between 1718 and 1726.

Manuscripts

The Fagel Collection includes manuscript material, the most well-known being the journal of

Simon van der Stel Simon van der Stel (14 October 1639 – 24 June 1712) was the first Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony (1691), the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. He was interested in botany, establishing vineyards Groot Constantia, Groot and Klein C ...

from his travels to Namaqualand in the 1680s. Another celebrated work in the collection is The Fagel Missal, created by the in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

around 1460, remarkable for its elaborate decoration. The name 'Margaret' is written on the Missal, suggesting that it was authored by a woman, a rare thing to be documented during the period of the Missal's creation as many female writers and illustrators remained anonymous. A lesser known manuscript is an album of tulip illustrations drawn between 1637 and 1641, significant because it is estimated to be one of fifty surviving manuscripts of its kind: , a product of pre-1637 Dutch ' tulipmania'. As the family home on Noordeinde underwent several architectural and design changes over the generations, the Trinity collection includes construction drawings for the Fagel home. The collection also contains an album of eighteenth-century architectural drawings of buildings in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, including a plan for the Smolny Convent. This album is notable as it is one of only four of its kind found outside of Russia.

Maps

The collection contains a significant number and impressive quality of single-sheet maps that make up the Fagel Atlas. One important map is John Oligby's 1676 ''Large and accurate map of the city of London'', an 'ichnographic map' made up of 20 sheets, rare due to its pristine condition compared to the few other surviving copies.

Contemporary relevance

The Fagel collection is admired not only for its expanse but for its diversity of material, used for contemporary, interdisciplinary research across history, geography, art history, and other intersecting fields. The Fagel collections' significance across multiple countries has led to international cultural cooperation, sharing, and learning, such as in the Unlocking the Fagel Collection project jointly undertaken by the Library of Trinity College Dublin and the

Royal Library of the Netherlands The KB National Library of the Netherlands (legal Dutch name: Koninklijke Bibliotheek or KB ; ''Royal Library'') is the national library of the Netherlands, based in The Hague, founded in 1798. The KB collects everything that is published in ...

since 2020. One discovery from this project was that 2,000 items in the Fagel Collection are the only known surviving copies of their kind, making them very rare.

References

External links

The Fagel Collection, Digital Collections at the Library of Trinity College Dublin
*
Bibliotheca Fageliana. A catalogue of the valuable and extensive library of the Greffier Fagel, of the Hague
*
Simon van der Stel's Journal of his Expedition to Namaqualand
*
Daily Register kept of Simon van der Stel's Expedition to Namaqualand
*
Plans for the Fagel house and gardens in The Hague
*
The Fagel Missal
*
The Trinity College Plutarch
''Parallel Lives'' ** Tulip illustrations
Alckmaarse Lusthoff van Tulpaanen, ofte Verkooping van een Parteÿ Tulpaanen, binnen Alckmaar den 5 February 1637

Unlocking the Fagel Collection Research Project
at the Library of Trinity College Dublin an
Unlocking the Fagel Collection (Dutch)
at the

Report of the Symposium on the Fagel Collection (Dutch)
from the Royal Library of the Netherlands
The Fagel Collection blog
by book historian and bibliographer Alex Alsemgeest
''Unlocking the Fagel Collection'' video series
by Library of Trinity College Dublin and the

{{Authority control Trinity College Dublin Private libraries