Our History
The Worth Library is named at Edward Worth (1676–1733), an early eighteenth-century Dublin physician. Worth was a son of John Worth (1648–88), Church of Ireland Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and a grandson of Edward Worth (d. 1669), Church of Ireland Bishop of Killaloe, and from his family he inherited land, money, and books. He studied at Merton College, Oxford, for his bachelor of arts, and moved to the University of Leiden to study medicine, graduating from the nearby University of Utrecht in 1701 having performed his MD thesis on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. His education at Leiden would play a major role in the subsequent development of his collection.
On his return to Dublin he set up a medical practice at Werburgh Street, and was subsequently elected as President of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians in Ireland on a number of occasions. In 1717 he was asked to join a newly-founded Trust, set up by Grizel Steevens (c. 1654–1747), to aid in fundraising for a general hospital, which had been the brainchild of her brother, Richard Steevens (c. 1654–1710), who, like Worth, was a physician in early eighteenth-century Dublin. When Worth was deciding in 1723 where to leave his prestigious collections of books, it was a natural choice to leave them to Dr Steevens’ Hospital – even though the hospital was not, at that time, completed, and would only open some months after his death in 1733.
The stipulation in Worth’s will concerning the bequest of his library to the hospital was an unusual one: the library was to be solely for ‘the use, benefit, and behoof of the Physitian, Chaplain, and Surgeon for the time being of the said Hospital’. This, coupled with the decision to enclose the books in early eighteenth-century glass-fronted cases, and the choice of an east-facing room (which limits light exposure), points to Worth’s keen interest in the preservation of his collection. Since no librarian was appointed it is difficult to know exactly how the Worth Library was used between 1733 (when the books arrived into their purpose-built room), and 1988 (when Dr Steevens’ Hospital finally closed), but judging by the condition of the books, there were few readers during that time. In effect the Library was not a working library during this period, and served instead as the Boardroom of the hospital.
As a result of the closure of the hospital the books were moved to Trinity College Dublin for safekeeping. Following a High Court case concerning the collection, the Worth Library Trust was set up in 1995 and the books were moved back to their room in Dr Steevens’ Hospital: this time with a trained librarian looking after them and greatly increased access. Today, the Worth Library is known both nationally and internationally as a centre for the history of the book, the history of medicine, and the history of science. Staff offer tours (by appointment), an annual lecture series, exhibitions, and much more! We love giving tours of Worth’s beautiful library so do please contact us about visiting the Worth Library.
Find out more about Worth and Dr Steevens’ Hospital in the early eighteenth-century:
Boran, Elizabethanne, ‘Buying and Selling Medical Books in early eighteenth-century Dublin’, Eighteenth-Century Ireland, 32 (2017), 105-135.
Boran, Elizabethanne, ‘Collecting medicine in early eighteenth-century Dublin: the library of Edward Worth’, in John Cunningham (ed.), Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine. Practitioners, collectors and contexts (Manchester, 2019), pp 165-87.
Boran, Elizabethanne, online exhibition: Dr Steevens Hospital: A History.
Breugelmans, Ronald (1995), ‘De Worth Library in Dublin’ in Margriet Gosker (ed.) Een Boek Heeft Eeen Rug. (Uitgeverij Boekencentrum B. V. – Zoetermeer), pp. 71-74.
Cruickshank D. W. and Wilson, E. M. (1974), ‘A Calderón Collection in Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin’ in Long Room 9, pp. 17-27.
Kirkpatrick, T. P. C. (1924; reprinted 2008) The History of Doctor Steevens’ Hospital Dublin, 1720-1920 (Dublin: University Press; UCD Press), Chapter 8.
Kinane, Vincent (1997) ‘Some red Morocco bindings by Christopher Chapman in the
Worth library, Dublin’ in Long Room no. 42, pp. 19-24.
Kinane, Vincent (1999), ‘The ‘dark and Delicate Style’ of Parliamentary Binder A: A Group of Bindings in the Worth Library, Dublin’, in The Book Collector 48, pp. 372-386.
McCarthy, Muriel (1986), ‘An Eighteenth-Century Dublin Bibliophile’ in Irish Arts Review, vol 3, no 4, pp. 29-35.
Mc Cormack, W. J. (2006), ‘Why did Edward Worth leave his books to Dr Steevens’ Hospital?’ in David Fitzpatrick (ed.) The Feds: an account of the Federated Dublin Voluntary Hospitals, 1961-2005 (Dublin: A. & A. Farmar), pp. 305-12.
McCormack, W. J. (2008), ‘Some commercial and other sources for the Edward Worth Library (1733)’ in Gillian O’Brien and Finola O’Kane (eds.) Georgian Dublin (Dublin: Four Courts), Chapter 13.
Westerhof, Danielle (ed.) (2010) The Alchemy of Medicine and Print: The Edward Worth Library Dublin (Dublin: Four Courts Press).