POLITE LITERATURE. 



I. A Memoir of the Medals and Medallists connected with Ireland. By the 

 Very Rev. Henry Richard Dawson, A.M., Dean of St. Patrick's. 



Read 16th March, 1838. 



O, when shall Ireland, conscious of her claim, 

 Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame ? 



Pope. 



1 HE increasing interest which has been of late years manifested respecting 

 collections of medals, affords a strong proof of the value justly attached to them, 

 both as commemorative corroborations of certain historical events, and also as 

 specimens of skill, ingenuity, and taste amongst artificers in that line. In 

 almost every country of Europe, excepting our own, its medallic history has at 

 successive periods occupied not only the attention, but the pens of learned indi- 

 viduals, and their lucubrations have greatly contributed as well to stimulate the 

 ingenuity of the artist, as to elucidate the facts connected with its exercise ; so 

 that many a political event, and many an heroic achievement, which had escaped 

 the notice of contemporary historians, has, through their instrumentality, been 

 rescued from oblivion, and brought under the notice of posterity in the almost 

 imperishable materials of the precious metals. 



The northern States of Europe can boast of Beskrivelse, Mechel, and Brenner 

 illustrating and explaining their medals. Holland and the Netherlands have 

 Van Mieris, Van Loon, and Bizot, in ponderous folios, with plates and text, 

 describing each minute particular. In France, Le Blanc, Fleurimont, and 

 Bouteroue have engraved both coins and medals ; while in the later period of 

 the glorious era of Andrieu, Laskey and Millingen have elaborately pointed out 



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