Chester Beatty Library

The Chester Beatty Library houses the collection assembled by the American-British mining magnate Alfred Chester Beatty (1875–1968) over 60 years of travel and acquisition. Beatty was one of the wealthiest men in the world through the early 20th century; his collecting instinct was exceptional. The result is one of the finest collections of Islamic, East Asian, Western and early Christian manuscripts, scrolls and printed material anywhere in the world — housed since 1953 in Ireland, where Beatty settled after the Second World War and was made Ireland's first honorary citizen.

The collection is displayed across two floors. The ground floor (Sacred Traditions) covers East Asian, Islamic and Western religious manuscripts: illuminated Qur'ans from the 9th–19th centuries, the finest collection of Chinese jade books outside China, Tibetan Buddhist paintings, Japanese woodblock prints and fragments of the Book of Numbers dated to the 2nd century AD — among the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts known. The first floor (Arts of the Book) traces the development of writing, printing and bookmaking across cultures.

What makes the Chester Beatty unusual is not just the quality of individual objects but the breadth of traditions they represent side by side. A 9th-century Qur'an in perfect condition, a 16th-century Japanese screen painting and a Roman papyrus from the 2nd century are displayed in adjacent rooms. Entry is free; the café in the garden is one of the better café spaces in Dublin city centre. The library is 5 minutes' walk from Dublin Castle and 10 minutes from Trinity College.