RCB Library Notes
Book launch in Rome
Our former colleague Peter Cheney recently attended a prestigious book launch in Rome hosted by the Irish Manuscripts Commission of its latest publication, which as Peter reports is now available to consult or borrow at the RCB Library. We are grateful to Peter for attending and reporting the significance of this edition.
Rome launch for book revealing Tudor era records
A new chapter of a labour of love and research going back over 130 years opened recently when the Calendar of Papal Letters relating to Great Britain and Ireland (Volume XXII) was recently launched by the British and Irish Embassies to the Holy See. As the latest in series undertaken by the Irish Manuscripts Commission, it covers correspondence in 1522 and 1523, as recorded in the Vatican and Lateran registers, covering the brief reign of Pope Adrian VI.
The book can be consulted in the Representative Church Body Library which keeps a special interest in the period, in the approach to the time of the English Reformation. British Ambassador Chris Trott noted that a copy had been presented to Pope Leo XIV at an audience earlier on the day of the launch (Wednesday, 20th May 2026).
The Commission’s Chairman, Professor John McCafferty, described the project as “a very important British–Irish collaboration” drawing on the archives of continental Europe (which became even more important after the loss of records in the 1922 fire in the Four Courts). The editor of the Calendar, Professor Alan Macquarrie, noted that the Irish and Scottish entries are “rich in personal and place names.” He gave “chief thanks” to the guest of honour – retired Vatican archivist Monsignor Charles Burns – who had “built so many bridges between Rome and Britain and Ireland over the years” and had welcomed scholars to Rome since the 1960s.
Adrian VI, from Utrecht, has been the only Dutch Pope to date and was the last non–Italian Pope before the election of John Paul II in 1979. The letters are being published for the first time and include those relating to the appointments of bishops in Cork, Dublin, Durham, the Isle of Man, and St Andrews.
Calendar of Papal Letters, Vol. XXII, 1522–1523: Adrian VI, Vatican and Lateran Registers can be purchased from the Irish Manuscripts Commission (for €40.00) at www.irishmanuscripts.ie/publications