118 Proceedings of the Roijal Irkh Academy. 



Therefore, it became a question whether these papers should be left 

 wholly unnoticed, or should be published in their present form. The 

 Council of the lloyal Irish Academy has decided to allow these papers 

 to be published, and they now appear in print with this explanation 

 of the reason of the delay in their appearance, and tlieir lack of com- 

 pleteness in form. Any contribution from the ])en of so eminent an 

 authority will, however, be heartily welcomed, especially on tlie 

 subject of Irish Eibliography, for no one had such opportunities of 

 making valuable contributions upon it as he had, having through his 

 long life of unceasing research and toil in various departments of Irish 

 history, and more particularly in the history of liis native city, come 

 across many most interesting works by Irish authors printed at various 

 places. Hence these papers and the following Appendices have a 

 special value in the fact that they deal with what Sir Jolm T. Gilbert 

 has dwelt so much upon in them, namely, the works of Irish authors 

 printed not only here but abroad. In this the special value of these 

 papers lies. The reader, indeed, of the following papers who may be 

 at all interested in Irish Bibliography or the history of Irish authors, 

 will be much struck by the fact, brought out so impressively by Sir 

 John T. Gilbert, of the great number of works still extant that were 

 written, printed, and published by our countrymen abroad. A few 

 footnotes are attached here and there where it was thought they might 

 be useful in amplifying the information afforded by the papers. The 

 Appendices A and B consist of a number of titles (very briefly given) 

 selected from the large number of copies of title-pages (over 300) 

 brought together by Sir John T. Gilbert, or obtained for him, and 

 which are at present deposited in the Eoyal Irish Academy. They 

 are kept together in chronological order, and anyone desiring to pursue 

 this very interesting subject further will find much assistance in going 

 through these title-pages. In almost all cases the title-pages are not 

 only copied, but a careful collation of the work itself follows, and the 

 place where the work itself will be found is generally given in pencil 

 at the left-hand corner. A good deal of the labour connected with this 

 collection of Sir John T. Gilbert was done for him, under his directions, 

 by Mr. John Weldrick. The titles in the Appendices A and B are 

 given from the collection made by Sir John T. Gilbert to illustrate in 

 how many of the towns or cities on the Continent works by Irishmen, 

 or about Ireland, were printed during the two centuries covered by his 

 papers. There are also in the (collection titles of works about Ireland 

 whose authors are not Irish, printed chiefly in London, but also in Oxford 

 and Cambridge, with several having no place of printing stated in their 



