Launch of book in honour of Leonard E Boyle OP

Benjamin Earl OP (Dominican Province of England and Procurator General of the Order), Paul Lawlor OP (prior of San Clemente), Vivian Boland OP (member of the San Clemente community, co-editor of the volume of essays), John Harris OP (provincial of the Dominican Province of Ireland), HE Frances Collins, Paul Murray OP (member of the San Clemente community), Luigina Orlandi (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, co-editor of the volume of essays), Bruno Kelleher OP and Benedict McGlinchey OP (members of the San Clemente community), Don Mauro Mantovani SDB (Prefect of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana).

On Thursday, December 4 the Irish Embassy to the Holy See hosted the launch of a book, Un Innovatore nella Tradizione (An Innovator in Tradition) published to honour a distinguished Irish Dominican scholar, Leonard Boyle, who died in 1999. 

A day conference on his life and work had been held on November 13, 2023 at two venues in Rome, the priory of San Clemente to which Boyle was assigned and the Vatican Library of which he was the prefect, or head, for thirteen years.

He was born in Donegal in 1923 but also had strong family connections with Tralee. He was one of the first Irish Dominicans to study at Oxford, just after World War II, where he excelled in the study of history, in particular of palaeography. 

He spent the main part of his teaching career in Toronto introducing students to that subject. It may seem like a dry, unpromising, field to till but he did it in a way which he termed ‘integral palaeography’. 

This meant receiving ancient texts not just as old writing to be deciphered but as communications from real people to be received as one would receive the people themselves, to be carefully understood and interpreted in the broadest possible social, cultural and intellectual contexts.

The conference in 2023 brought together fellow Dominicans, colleagues from Toronto and Rome, former students, and members of his family. 

The Irish Ambassador to the Holy See, Frances Collins, also attended the conference. She was very taken by the personality and achievements of Leonard Boyle, saying that if the papers were published the embassy would be happy to host a launch of the book. This is what happened on Thursday. 

It was launched with contributions from the ambassador herself, from the present prefect of the library Don Mauro Mantovani, from Luigina Orlandi one of the co-editors of the book, and from Viliam Doci OP, president of the Dominican Historical Institute.

The book is available through the Vatican Library website and is in four parts, dealing with the man himself, his work at San Clemente, his work as teacher and scholar, and his years at the Vatican Library. A report on the launch of the book can be found on the Instagram account of the Irish Embassy to the Holy See.