Digitisation Project: The Magazine of Magazines, 18th Century Limerick Publication - Prof. Geraldine Sheridan, Dr. Michael Griffin, and Yvonne Diggins (PhD.c)

In 1751, Limerick printer Andrew Welsh, based in a building called ‘The Exchange’ on Nicholas Street, Englishtown, near the cathedral in Limerick, began reprinting an edition of the London-based The Magazine of Magazines, Compiled from original pieces, with extracts from the most celebrated books and periodicals published in Europe. The Limerick publication started life as a direct, almost page for page, reprint of the London edition, printed by William Owen.

It was a major undertaking for a provincial printer in the Irish context: Welsh claims to have bought an entirely new set of type for this new publishing project, and the Limerick edition is of better quality than its London counterpart. The Limerick edition was not simply aimed at the immediate urban public; there are three named retailers in Cork listed on the title pages of the first issues, as well as one in Dublin. To the surprise of our research team, we discovered that the Magazine long outlived its London counterpart, and for most of its existence was, in fact, an original Limerick publication. Errors in holding library catalogues had long disguised this fact.

The Magazine of Magazines, which was published for the best part of two decades, from 1751 to 1769, is a miscellany comprising of extracts from numerous eighteenth century periodicals and journals and covers subjects as diverse as science, philosophy, medicine, meteorology, religion, mythology and literature to name but a few. It was the first periodical publication to feature Thomas Gray’s famous Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, in 1751, and published essays and excerpts from towering intellectual figures of the day such as Dr Johnson and Voltaire. The originals of the  Magazine of Magazines are held at the British Library and the National Library of Ireland.  

The National Library of Ireland are now linking to our Magazine of Magazines digitisation projects! Click here to view our project listing on the National Library of Ireland online catalogue >>

Two Digitisation Projects - The Magazine of Magazines is now online!

The first  digitisation project is funded by the University of Limerick Seed Fund and PRTLI4, HEA and focuses on digitizing The Magazine of Magazines, as a fully text searchable public good, creating over 150 Portable Document Format (PDF) documents, creating static, searchable and historical reusable learning resources, which will be included in the UL Institutional Repository & the National Digital Learning Resources (NDLR) Repository.

The second digitisation project is funded by the NDLR service and focuses on digitising The Magazine of Magazines creating approximately 150 interactive ebooks with informative annotations, developing reusable learning resources for lecturers, students & other interested parties who wish to research Eighteenth Century magazine text. This project is using iMARK, developed by Prof Frank Boland, Darren Kavanagh and John Squires to develop these ebooks.

By creating these reusable learning resources, the ECRG are bringing The Magazine of Magazines online to lecturers, students & researchers, on both national and international levels, enabling them to research eighteenth century text and the national and international events of this time, the period, 1751-1769. These quality and innovative reusable learning resources will be digitized for lifelong learning and will be easily sharable online.

The output of these digitisation projects will be available to the academic public through their inclusion in the UL Institutional Repository & the National Digital Learning Resources (NDLR) Repository.