This volume brings together in one place the life of each Provost from 1592 to 1927. Its focus is on the person of the Provost rather than on the history of the College, although of course that history is an important part of each life. Some of the, perhaps surprising, facts about a few of these men are given below:

In 1592, on its foundation, the first Provost of Trinity College Dublin was Adam Loftus, an immensely powerful man, being at the same time Provost, Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

William Bedell (Provost 1627-29) wrote of the Irish language that ‘my endeavour shall be to understand the tongue of this country which I see (although it be accounted otherwise) is a learned and exact language and full of difficulty.’ Later he translated the Old Testament into Irish, checking the text against the original Hebrew.

Robert Huntington (Provost 1683-92), was fluent in Arabic, having spent 11 years as chaplain to the Levant Company in Aleppo in Syria. He returned with a priceless collection of manuscripts and antiquities.

A Treatise on Conic Sections by George Salmon (Provost 1888-1904) had run through six editions by 1879, had been translated into French and German, and universities all over Europe used it as a text book. Later, there was a Spanish edition.