Life
1753-1821 [‘Jacky’ Barrett; var. Jackie]; TCD don and
eccentric; b. Ballyroan, Co. Laois, son of Church of Ireland clergyman;
ed. TCD, Fellow, 1778; DD, 1790; Professor of Oriental Languages; Vice-Provost,
1807; An Enquiry into the Origin of the Constellations that form the
Zodiac, and an essay on the early life of Swift (1808); discovered
the Dublin Codex Rescriptus [Codex Z Dublinensis Rescriptus] in
TCD Library, a MS palimpsest manuscript of Gospel of St Matthew, which
edited and he published (Dublin UP 1787); remained inside College boundaries
during most of his career; his extraordinary ignorance of ordinary things
and general eccentricities made the subject of Trinity narratives in Sir
Jonah Barringon’s Sketches (1827) incl. his observations on
the sea as an ‘irregular, fluxious surface’, etc; saved
his income, leaving £80,000 on his death ‘to feed the hungry and clothe
the naked’; there is an account
of Barrett in Lever’s Charles O’Malley. DNB
DIB
[ top ]
Works
An enquiry into the Origin of the Constellations that Compose the Zodiac,
and the Uses they were Intended to Promote (Dublin: R. E. Mercier
& Co.; London: Vernor & Hood 1800), vi, 198pp., 8o.; An Essay
on the Earlier Part of the Life of Swift [...] To which are subjoined
several pieces ascribed to Swift; two of his original letters; and extracts
from his remarks on Bishop Burnet's History (London: J. Johnson 1808),
viii, 4-232pp., 8o.; Evangelium secundum Matthaeum, ex codice rescripto
in Bibliotheca Collegii SSae Trinitatis juxta Dublin. Descriptum opera
et studio Johannis Barrett [...] Cui adjungitur appendix, collationem
codicis Montfortiani complectens (Dublinii: Ex aedibus academicis
[Dublin UP] 1801), 52, liv [facs. pls.], 35pp., 4o.
[ top ]
Criticism
S. P. Tregelles, The Dublin Codex Rescriptus (London 1863); Patrick
Kennedy, Modern Irish Anecdotes (London: Routledge [1872]), pp.116-18;
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976;
1984), p.70.
See also report on Irish Literary Society ‘Table Talk’, in The Irish Book Lover (April 1920), which incls. reminiscences of Barrett, portrayed in Lever and recalled by Dr. Wall, TCD Vice-Provost, who declared that the portrait of “Jacky in the Hall grew liker the original, as it got dirter every day.’
[ top ]
Notes
The British Library holds [1] An enquiry into
the origin of the constellations that compose the zodiac, and the uses
they were intended to promote.. Dublin: R. E. Mercier & Co.; London:
Vernor & Hood, 1800. pp. vi, 198. 8o. [2] An Essay on the Earlier
Part of the Life of Swift ... To which are subjoined several pieces ascribed
to Swift; two of his original letters; and extracts from his remarks on
Bishop Burnet's History. Title [Another copy.]. pp. viii. 4-232. J. Johnson,
etc.: London, 1808. 8o [3] Evangelium secundum Matthaeum, ex codice rescripto
in Bibliotheca Collegii Ssae. Trinitatis juxta Dublin. Descriptum opera
et studio Johannis Barrett ... Cui adjungitur appendix, collationem codicis
Montfortiani complectens. [with facsimiles.] pp. 52. liv. 35. pl. LIV.
Ex aedibus academicis: Dublinii, 1801. 4o
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)