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4. A Clear and Learned Explication of the History of Our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ (Dublin, 1695).
These original texts about the life of Jesus Christ were translated into English by the Dublin linguist and scholar, Dudley Loftus (1619–95).
Loftus was a personal friend of the founder of this library, Archbishop Narcissus Marsh, and the inscription at the bottom of the title page records that this copy was a gift from Loftus to Marsh.
This copy was offered for sale by a London bookseller in 1982 for £20. The bookseller’s catalogue noted that there was only one known copy in the world, that in Marsh’s Library. The bookseller should have been suspicious that this was not a previously unknown second copy because it is clear a library stamp has been removed from the left-hand side of the title page, and replaced with a circular piece of paper. A pencil was then used to try to fill in the text destroyed by the removal of the stamp.
The Library bought this back from the bookseller. He could only say that he received it ‘from an Irishman’ he had never seen before.
Citation:
4. A Clear and Learned Explication of the History of Our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ (Dublin, 1695).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed July 4, 2025,
https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/406
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