Our Holdings

 

Register Book.

This book contains a record of the students of the college. Begun in 1826 it continues to be used to record details such as name, birth, home-parish, parentage, schooling,  academic and ecclesiastical career of seminarians of the College. In some cases further information about the further careers of students was added.

Rectors' Correspondence.

The correspondence files of the Rectors of the Irish College are the most frequently consulted records of our archive. They begin in 1821 and continue to be added to to this day (open to public up to 1977).

More about 'Rectors of the Irish College'.

The bulk of the material is made up of incoming mail addressed to the Rector. However drafts, letters to staff and students and other third parties and printed material are also included.

Much of the material dating from Rector Cullen's and Rector Kirby's has been digitized and is freely available online. This  project is ongoing.

The Cullen and Kirby Papers have both undergone fragmentation and separation. Please refer to the online guides for bibliographic information and an explanation of these separations.

Jesuit Files.

The Jesuit Files are 17th - 18th century manuscripts consisting of correspondence relating to the foundation and early administration of the College, an early history of the College , financial accounts and generally circulated documents of the period.  Beginning with the year of foundation 1628,  they span the period of  Jesuit administration of the College up to a short period before the suppression of the College during the French occupation of Rome in 1798.

The volumes have been listed by Vera Orschel (Due to be published in Archivium Hibernicum in 2010).

The Jesuit Files have been used to write an early history of the College entitled Collegium Hibernorum De Urbe, edited by James Reilly S. J.  Researchers should also consult Mon. John Hanly's "Records of the Irish College, Rome, under Jesuit administration" in Archivium Hibernicum xxvii (1964) 13-75.

 

 

What follows below is an overview of our holdings. We do not, as a rule, acquire documents. The bulk of our holdings therefore arise from College administration and extra agency functions carried out by the Rectors of the College. We also hold student records, records dating from the period of Jesuit administration of the college and photographs.

 

Manuscript Journals.

A Manuscript Journal is created each year by the students of the college. They are a valuable source, providing a parallel and alternative record of the college. They contain essays on religion, history, culture, literature, sport and other topics of interest to the students.  They document student life through photographs of visitors, college trips, sporting events, the college play, study and ordinations while also documenting momentous events like the Liberation of Rome in 1944 or the opening of the Vatican Council in 1962.

The earliest journal dates from 1916 and journals exist for most years up to the present. There is also an Irish equivalent Irisleabhar na Gaeilge for the years 1917 to 1919.

Photographic Collection.

Work is underway to catalogue our photographic collection. The earliest photographs in the archive are late 1800s cabinet-cards.

We have five photograph albums (c.280 items) and circa 350 loose photographs for the period pre-dating 1939.

Researchers interested in our photographic collection should consult the 'Photographs pre-1939 Guide' and moreover contact the archivist at archives@irishcollege.org for updates and assistance.

Non-institutional Holdings.

Of those collections not connected with the administration of the College, the following three are the most consulted. 

  • Transcripts  from the archives of the Propaganda Fide.  Seventy volumes. Mostly 17th and 18th century documents selected for transcription on the basis of their interest for Irish history.

  • Manuscript fragments on parchment. Thirty medieval (and later) fragments of what were mainly 12th to 14th century liturgical codices none of them are of Irish provenance Eight fragments contain early music notation for chant covering a period from the tenth to the seventeenth century.

  •   19th-century copies of texts in Irish. Five volumes of heroic tales (e.g. from the Fiannaíocht) and historic texts  (e.g. from Foras Feasa). See Pádraig Ó Fiannachta "Láimhscríbhinní Gaeilge Choláiste na nGael sa Róimh" Studia Celtica 3 (1968) 53-65.