Richard Irvine Best Explained

Richard Irvine Best
Birth Date:17 January 1872
Birth Place:Derry, Ireland
Occupation:Philologist, Bibliographer, Librarian
Death Place:Dublin, Ireland
Spouse:Edith Best (1906-1950)
Subject:Translations

Richard Irvine Best (17 January 1872 – 25 September 1959) was born at 3 Bishop Street in Derry, Ireland. He was often known as R. I. Best, or simply Best to his close friends and family.[1] [2] He was an Irish scholar, specifically a philologist and bibliographer, who specialised in Celtic Studies.[3]

Family

Best’s parents were Henry Best and Margaret Jane Best (née Irvine). His father, Henry, was an excise officer working in Paisley, Scotland at the time of Richard’s birth.[4]

Richard Best married his wife, Edith Best (née Oldham) in 1906, Best was seven years her junior. Edith was older sister to Charles Hubert Oldham, who would go on to become Professor of Economics at University College Dublin. Edith herself was a musician, a pianist, who had studied at the Royal College of Music in London. The couple had no children, and also claimed to have no affiliation with any religion.[5] Edith died in 1950, and Best on 25 September, nine years later. He died in his home at 57 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin.

Early life

His education took place locally at a grammar school in County Londonderry, called Foyle College, an institution which dates back to 1617, schooling children ages eleven to eighteen. Following on from his time at Foyle College, Best did not attend university, however he was a member of the Irish Literary Society in London. Instead of attending university he worked as a banking assistant for a time before an inheritance allowed him to travel to Paris, France.

It was in Paris that Best met, and became friends with, John Millington Synge, who recommended the lectures of Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville at the Collège de France. Best would later go on to translate and annotate Henri d’Arbois de Jubainville’s work, Le cycle mythologique irlandais et la mythologie celtique into The Irish Mythological Cycle and Celtic Mythology. Best returned to Dublin, where he met Kuno Meyer, who he pushed to establish the School of Irish Learning in 1903, where Best himself was both secretary and student; he was capable of speaking both French and Irish alongside English.

Career

Upon returning from Paris, Best became Honorary Secretary of the School of Irish Learning from the year of its inception in 1903, which was incorporated into the Royal Irish Academy in 1926. He acted as joint editor of the School’s journal Ériu (journal), and continued after the transfer of the journal to the Academy. In 1904 Best joined the staff of the National Library of Ireland as an assistant director. He succeeded as Chief Librarian in 1924, and subsequently Library Director, where he remained in the post until 1940.[6] Throughout his career, Best became a prolific expert on Celtic studies, and has been widely attributed to the survival and success of the subject as it is known today.[7]

Achievements

His work earned him several accolades. He received the Leibniz Medal of the Royal Prussian Academy in 1914, an honorary D.Litt. by the National University of Ireland in 1920, and an Honorary D.Litt. by Trinity College Dublin in 1923. In 1936 Best was awarded the Medal of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Pius XI for his facsimile edition of the Milan codex. He was elected as President of the Royal Irish Academy in 1942. His works, Bibliography of Irish Philology and of Irish Printed Literature (1913)[8] and Bibliography of Irish Philology and Manuscript Literature, 1913-41 (1942), are considered to be some of his most important scholarly outputs.

Best is also known for his appearances in famous works of Irish literature. He appears in James Joyces’ Ulysses, describing him as such, “Mr Best entered, tall, young, mild, light. He bore in his hand with grace a notebook, new, large, clean, bright”. George Moore described him as, “A young man with beautiful shining hair and features so fine and delicate that many a young girl must have dreamed of him at her casement window, and would have loved him if he had not been so passionately interested in the infixed pronoun”, in his memoir Hail and Farewell. Best was drawn by John Butler Yeats, father of William Butler Yeats, and his portrait now hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Career after retirement

Upon his retirement from the National Library, Best became a Senior Professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). Best retired from the DIAS in 1947 at the age of seventy-five. From 1948 to 1956, he became chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, a position previously held by Eoin MacNeill. While in this role, Best supervised several facsimiles, including RIA MS 23 N 10, later renamed the Book of Ballycummin in 2019.[9] During this time, his wife, Edith, passed away at their home on 9 March 1950.[10]

Later life

Following his retirement from the Irish Manuscripts Commission, Best spent much of the final three years of his life “sorting out his large correspondence”, much of which is currently held in the National Library. Best also continued to publish new work throughout his later life. He worked on a translation of the Book of Leinster alongside Osborn Bergin and Professor M. A. O’Brien, who took over after Bergin’s death in 1950. The first fasciculus was published in 1954, the second in 1956 and the third in 1959. Best’s work also appeared in multiple academic journals, including “Éiriu, and the Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, Revue Celtique, Études Celtiques, Hermathena, The Dublin Magazine, The Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.” Best also continued with his work in palaeography, including the last paper he completed on the Book of Armagh in 1958, which appeared in Éiriu vol. xviii. E.K.'s obituary for Best also notes “all his anonymous work: transcriptions and investigations undertaken…for other scholars,…friends and colleagues.” His aid in the writing of others is particularly visible in his surviving correspondence with George Moore.

Death and legacy

Best died on 25 September 1959, at his home on 57 Upper Leeson Street in Dublin.[11] The Richard I. Best Papers are currently held at the National Archive and have been instrumental in the foundation of The Richard Irvine Best Memorial lecture. This discussion and celebration of Best’s work, organised by Richard Irvine Best Memorial Lecture Trust, has taken place since 1969.

Publications

Notes and References

  1. de Vere White . Terence . 1977 . Richard Irvine Best and His Irish Literary Contemporaries . Irish University Review . 7 . 2 . 168–183 . 25477173 . 0021-1427.
  2. Sayers . William . 2006 . Best the Mythographer, Dinneen the Lexicographer: Muted Nationalism in "Scylla and Charybdis" . Papers on Joyce . 12 . 7–24.
  3. Web site: Best, Richard Irvine (1872–1959), philologist and bibliographer . 2023-11-03 . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . en . 10.1093/ref:odnb/64461 .
  4. Web site: Breathnach . Diarmuid . Ní Mhurchú . Máire . 2010 . BEST, Richard Irvine . 23 October 2023 . ainm.ie.
  5. Web site: Census of Ireland, 1911 . National Archives of Ireland.
  6. H. . J. . 1966 . Obituary: Richard Irvine Best (1872-1959) . Analecta Hibernica . 23 . xiii–xvi . 25511888 . 0791-6167.
  7. K. . E. . 1962 . Richard Irvine Best 1872-1959 . Ériu . 19 . 123–125 . 30006871 . 0332-0758.
  8. Book: National Library of Ireland . Bibliography of Irish philology and of printed Irish literature .. . Best . R. I. (Richard Irvine) . 1913 . Dublin : H. M. Stationery off.. Browne and Nolan. ltd. [printers] . University of California Libraries.
  9. Web site: Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 N 10 CODECS: Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies . 2023-11-22 . 10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-20/wschupbach/p11 .
  10. Web site: Best, Edith Dictionary of Irish Biography . 2023-11-22 . 10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-20/wschupbach/p11 .
  11. News: 26 September 1959 . DR R. I. BEST . Irish Independent .

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