It is very appropriate that the Chester Beatty Library should be the Dublin venue for the exhibition of the Rosenbach Museum and Foundation's precious manuscript of Ulysses. Both institutions were founded by wealthy collectors who wished to pass on their collections intact in what might now be called, with a shudder, a "dedicated facility".
Chester Beatty was a friend and customer of Rosenbach and the two institutions, though one is best known for its modern literature collections and the other for its oriental holdings, have worked together frequently in the past.
Some 30 sheets of the manuscript are being shown, as well as one of the two notebooks containing the last two episodes of the book. This is not a particularly lavish allotment from a manuscript of some 830 pages, but it has been well selected by the curator of the exhibition, Dr Michael Barsanti of Philadelphia, to highlight important features of the documents.
Some of the most familiar parts of the work, such as the opening page, ("Stately, plump . . . ") will be displayed. So will the now notorious page in which the passage containing the "word known to all men" appears. This will be shown next to the typescript, borrowed from the State University of New York at Buffalo, in which the passage significantly does not appear.
It will also be possible to experience how Ulysses evolved in the writing: the first page from the Gerty McDowell episode will be shown next to the workbook draft that precedes it and the typescript that follows it. The controversial question of the manuscript's apparent dual function - working draft and fair copy intended for sale - will also be illustrated.
The exhibition "Ulysses in Hand: The Rosenbach Manuscript", organised by the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, will be officially opened next Tuesday by The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Sile de Valera and will continue until October 1st. There is a minimal admission fee of £2 for adults. While it lasts, a number of lectures will be given on Joyce and/or the manuscript by speakers such as Anthony Cronin, Robert Nicholson, Kevin Barry, Declan Kiberd and the present writer.
Visitors who have not been to the Chester Beatty Library in its new home in Dublin Castle should certainly take the opportunity to view its own collections, now much more advantageously displayed, and in a far finer building, than in its previous abode in Shrewsbury Road.
The Chester Beatty's director, Dr Michael Ryan, mentions a final apt touch: the library in Dublin Castle now stands over the black pool - the Dubh Linn - from which Dublin takes its name. Ulysses will be at the centre of its world.