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The History Sale 2015
www.adams.ieTONY SWEENEY
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SWEENEY COLLECTION OF BOOKS,
BROADSIDES AND PAMPHLETS ASSOCIATED WITH IRELAND 1475-1700.
Those of us privileged to enjoy the late Tony Sweeney’s wonderful Arranmore library of Early Mod-
ern Irish books, broadsides and pamphlets were well aware of the dedication, passion and commit-
ment that lay behind its formation. We also knew that the collection he made was, incomparably,
the finest such library in private hands. In fact, it is impossible to overestimate the significance of
the Sweeney Arranmore collection for research into Early Modern Irish Studies. The books and
pamphlets it contains constitute the most significant untapped resource of printed materials for
research into sixteenth and seventeenth century Irish history, literature and civilization in the world.
Tony Sweeney’s passion for early modern books connected with Ireland, together with his pro-
digiously retentive mind for detail, made him not only a collector of the very best kind but also a
great scholarly bibliographer. With prodigious energy and meticulous research over many years,
he compiled his 1997 publication, Ireland and the Printed Word: a short descriptive catalogue
of early books, pamphlets, newsletters and broadsides relating to Ireland,1475-1700. The work,
that encompasses all printed material relating to Ireland, astonished scholars by its breadth of
compass and the depth of its learning. Sweeney combined an enviable grasp of intellectual life
in Early Modern Europe with a remarkable command of bibliographical detail, and identified
nearly 6,000 items for this pioneering descriptive bibliography. The originality of his scholarship
in this work was recognised by the National University of Ireland with the award of the degree of
D.Litt. All bibliographers, the world over, now refer to Early Modern Irish books by their Sweeney
number. Few works of scholarship have opened up research possibilities in Irish Studies so
profoundly and in such an exciting way as did Tony Sweeney’s Ireland and the Printed Word.
The second of Tony’s passions, as a collector of the books of the period, can be seen reflected in
Ireland and the Printed Word, where he included a ‘Collector’s Guide’, indicating whether a book
was ‘Findable’ by a collector searching for it for three years, for five years, or for seven years:
beyond this, Sweeney considered that a book was too rare find ‘in commerce’. This is not to say
that he himself might not spot a copy in some unexpected place and succeed in purchasing it.
In fact, his own collection - built on the basis of a daily, forensic examination of the catalogues of
every great antiquarian bookseller and auction house in the world, became legendary for its qual-
ity, its integrity and its originality. For Tony could spot literary and bibliographical connections
missed by other scholars and could link publications, authors and editors with Ireland in a way
no other scholar has ever attempted. He would go to enormous lengths - and spend large sums
of money - to obtain the books and pamphlets he needed to make his collection as complete
as it could be, driven by an insatiable desire to possess the best possible copy of every book or
pamphlet that could be shown to have a connection to Ireland before 1700. He told me several
times - when I was called to his house to be shown his latest acquisition - that one should always
buy the best if one wanted to assemble the best of collections. The copies of Irish books Tony
Sweeney purchased over the years were, quite simply, the best copies available in the world.
Professor Andrew Carpenter, Ph. D.,
University College Dublin,
School of English.
Dr. Tony Sweeney
(1931 - 2012)