The Belvedere College Book

 

 

The image to the left is taken from the Belvedere College Book, commissioned by the College Board from Eneclann in 2005-06.

 

The Board’s intention was principally to commemorate the Jesuits’ contribution to education in Belvedere, but also to mark the occasion of the Jesuits’ handing over the school, lock stock and barrel, to the Board.

About the Project

In commissioning this book, the Belvedere College Board wanted to create a book that would last a thousand years, and that would record all those Jesuits connected with the College from its inception in the 1840s, down to the present-day. The result is a magnificent manuscript book hand bound in fine leather, which draws on the finest traditions of calligraphy and book binding in Ireland. There is a page for every year, providing the names of all priests, brothers and scholastics, and their professional duties in the College.

 

 

Entry for Michael O'Ferral, Rector of Belvedere, 31 July 1858

The Annual Catalogues
This information was originally recorded in Latin in the annual Catalogues of Jesus in Ireland published from 1821 to the present, Eneclann Translated the text and it is recorded in English in the manuscript book. The earliest reference to the College in the Catalogues is in 1838 when it states ‘In this year there were five priests and one brother’ with no further information given. After 1851 the entries in the Catalogues are complete with full details given.
 

Traditionally Hand-Crafted

There are over 250 pages in the Belvedere Book, which was hand-written by two calligraphers, over the course of a year.

 

The calligraphers used traditional inks based on natural pigments ground from minerals, and hand-manufactured paper made from (modern paper is derived from wood pulp but decays at a faster rate, so this was a real conservation issue).

 

The individual folios (sheets of four pages), were then fitted together and hand-sewn, before the book could be bound in a fine leather binding. A linen presentation box was prepared to hold the completed manuscript book.

 

The bookbinding and cover design was undertaken by conservation bookbinder, Paul Curtis, of Muckross Conservation Bookbinding, Killarney, Co. Kerry.

Cover of the Belvedere Book

 

The binding was primarily in dark brown leather, but used five different types of leather including goat-skin, calf-skin and pig-skin. The cover depicts St. Francis Xavier’s journeys to India in the first half of the 16th Century. The binding of the Belvedere Book was hand-sewn in Muckross House according to traditional book-binding methods.

 

In preparing the Belvedere Book, Eneclann and our collaborators on this project, drew on traditional crafts that have been practised on this island for over 1,500 years.

 

 

Belvedere’s Most Famous Pupil: James Joyce

 

James Joyce attended Belvedere College between 1893 and 1898. By looking through the entries for these years it is possible to identify all the Jesuits connected with the college during Joyce’s schooldays - from the door-keeper, to Joyce’s own school-teachers. It is even possible to pick out teachers of specific subjects by name, and maybe ponder on the personalities and the monickers that Joyce and his school mates contrived for them. Most interestingly, these are the men who shaped the mind of the young James Joyce.