Satellites at the Court of the Sun King: French Bookbindings in the Edward Worth Library

Join us for a Culture Club talk presented in partnership with the Edward Worth Library. The world of French book bindings and the stories they can tell us will be explored.

Culture Club is a series of hosted talks and tours that introduce and encourage people to connect with the cultural spaces of the city.

This lecture, with a small accompanying exhibition of some of the items discussed, will focus on late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century French bindings in Edward Worth’s wonderfully preserved collection. In particular, the focus will be on a group of fine bindings belonging to nobles and clergy during the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV (1638–1715).

These beautiful bindings not only reflect the elegance of the court at Versailles – they also shed light on the political aspirations of their owners. They have many stories to tell us about life at the court of the Sun King.

This lecture is the Worth Library’s Grizelda Steevens Memorial Lecture and in 2026 is being run as a special Dublin City Council Culture Company event for Culture Date with Dublin 8.