Codices Hibernenses Eximii II: Book of Ballymote , livre ebook

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Codices Hibernenses Eximii II: Book of Ballymote will look afresh at some of the questions relating to the background and contents of the Book of Ballymote, one of the most extensive and most lavishly illuminated Irish manuscripts we have from the Late Middle Ages. The manuscript contains a vast array of prose and verse texts in Irish, including a copy of the imposing Leabhar Gabhala Eireann-the origin legend of the Irish, and a very small amount of material in Latin. The book, which will be the second in the Royal Irish Academy's Codices Hibernenses Eximii series, will present revised versions of contributions to a conference on the manuscript by Elizabeth Boyle, Bernadette Cunningham, Elizabeth Duncan, Raymond Gillespie, Deborah Hayden, Uaitear Mac Gearailt, Maire Ni Mhaonaigh, Donnchadh O Corrain, Padraig O Machain, Nollaig O Muraile, Ruairi O hUiginn, Karen Ralph.

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Ireland

Stephen Ireland

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Publié par	Royal Irish Academy
Date de parution	01 novembre 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781908997586
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,2250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Book of Ballymote
Codices Hibernenses Eximii 11
Edited by Ruair hUiginn
Donnchadh Corr in In Memoriam
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Book of Ballymote: a Genealogical Treasure
Donnchadh Corr in
2. Universal History and the Book of Ballymote
M ire N Mhaonaigh
3. Biblical History in the Book of Ballymote
Elizabeth Boyle
4. The Book of Ballymote and the Grammar of Irish
Deborah Hayden
5. Translations of Latin Works in the Book of Ballymote
U it ar Mac Gearailt
6. The Books of Ballymote and Lecan: their Structure and Contents Compared
Nollaig Mura le
7. The Book of Ballymote: Scholars, Sources and Patrons
Ruair hUiginn
8. The Book of Ballymote and the Irish Book
P draig Mach in
9. Owners and Users: the Changing Contexts of the Book of Ballymote, 1500-1750
Bernadette Cunningham and Raymond Gillespie
10. The Book of Ballymote: a Reappraisal of the Hand Formerly Attributed to Maghnus Duibhgeann in
Elizabeth Duncan
11. A Manuscript for a Lord: Reading the Illumination in the Book of Ballymote
Karen Ralph
Bibliography
Contributors
Acknowledgements
This volume, the second in the Codices Hibernenses Eximii series, contains the published proceedings of a conference on the Book of Ballymote held at the Royal Irish Academy, 5-6 February 2015. The editor is grateful to Siobh n Fitzpatrick, the Academy s Librarian, who co-organised the conference with him and took care of all practical matters with her customary efficiency and professionalism. Thanks to all the Library staff and the IT staff at the Academy for their assistance, which helped ensure that the conference was a great success.
The co-organisers are grateful to those who spoke at the conference, both for their lectures at the event and their subsequent written submissions. Furthermore, we thank those who attended the conference, several of whom made valuable contributions to the discussions that followed each paper.
With regard to the production of this volume, we are very much indebted to Helena King of the Publications Office at the Academy, who guided the book through the publication process. We are also grateful to the Academy s graphic designer Fidelma Slattery for her work on the design and layout of the series and this volume, and on the conference poster. Our thanks also to Brendan O Brien for his editing and Eileen O Neill for indexing. In addition, the editor and authors are greatly in the debt of two anonymous reviewers for numerous corrections and suggestions. We are also grateful to the School of Celtic Studies, Maynooth University, for assistance with the conference and this publication.
It is with great sorrow that we record the death on 25 October 2017 of Professor Donnchadh Corr in, a key contributor to this volume. Donnchadh had already submitted his essay and corrected a revised draft before his untimely death. For assistance with the editorial work that remained to be done on this chapter, we are grateful to Professor D ibh Cr in n of NUI Galway who read it in final proof, and to Mr Daniel Watson of Maynooth University who assisted with referencing. This volume, which contains one of Donnchadh Corr in s final publications, is dedicated to his memory.
Being part of the Ballymote story
At a break in the 2015 conference proceedings an appeal was made to the assembled delegates to Be a part of the Ballymote story .
The Librarian explained that the Book of Ballymote had been curated by the Royal Irish Academy Library since 1785. The manuscript s centrality to scholarship was well recognised, and its broad public appeal was obvious. It had long been one of the most in demand Academy manuscripts and was the first of our flagship manuscripts to be digitised for the Irish Script on Screen project. Whilst the overall condition of the Book of Ballymote was considered excellent-the essential structure had been well protected by its strong boards-the Library wished to commission a customised conservationquality box to ensure its preservation for generations to come.
Within hours of launching this appeal, the conference delegates had more than covered the estimated costs of producing such a box. The late Professor Corr in was one of the first to make a very generous donation. In all, there were 77 personal donors, in addition to Roinn na Nua-Ghaeilge, Col iste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh, and the Sligo Field Club, which made a very significant donation of 600 that was officially presented by the Club s then president, Mr Leo Leyden, to the Academy president, Professor Mary E. Daly, in May 2015.
Conservator Mr John Gillis was commissioned to construct a dropback box of quarter-sawn Irish beechwood boards with an alum-tawed calfskin spine. Mr Tim O Neill produced a beautiful vellum scroll listing the donors names and noting the conservation data. This now resides in the beautiful box that houses one of Ireland s foremost treasures-Leabhar Bhaile an Mh ta.
Introduction
The Book of Ballymote (BB) (RIA MS 536/23 P 12), written towards the end of the fourteenth century, is one of the most extensive and most lavishly illuminated Irish manuscripts we have from the Late Middle Ages. Its surviving 251 folios contain a vast array of prose and verse texts in Irish as well as a very small amount of material in Latin. Among the Irish texts it contains are a copy of the imposing Lebor Gab la renn , the origin legend of the Irish; tracts and poems on the different ages of the world; pedigrees and lists of the Christian kings of Ireland; and wisdom texts and repositories of traditional lore, such as the Tecosca Cormaic ( the Instructions of Cormac ), Senbr athra F thail ( The Aphorisms of F thal ) and the Triads of Ireland. These are followed by extensive genealogical tracts on the various population groups in Ireland, which occupy almost 70 folios and represent by far the most extensive section of the manuscript. BB further includes pedigrees and traditions relating to the saints of Ireland, and these are followed by various tales relating to famous kings and other figures of Irish mythological tradition, many of whom also feature in the genealogies. Lebor na Cert ( The Book of Rights ) lists the rights and tributes due to the kings of Ireland. Further traditions relating to individuals from Ireland s mythical past and to the origins of their names are found in the encyclopaedic C ir Anmann ( Fitness of Names ) and the Banshenchas ( Lore of women ), while mythological lore relating to the origins of some 145 Irish place-names is found in the Dindshenchas tract contained in BB. The manuscript also contains tracts on grammar and prosody, such as Auraicept na n ces (The Scholars Primer ), a key to deciphering the Ogham alphabet; it concludes with a number of adaptations of classical tales.
Unlike many other medieval manuscripts, BB furnishes us with some information about the place and time of its writing. Three scribes-Maghnus Duibhgeann in, Solamh Droma and Robertus Mac S thigh-are named in various notes that they wrote in the codex. One of these notes further informs us that part of the manuscript was written in the house of Tomaltach Mac Donnchaidh at Ballymote, Co. Sligo, during the reign of Toirdhealbhach the son of Aodh Conchobhair as king of Connacht ( RIA Cat. Ir. MSS 1611). As Tomaltach was head of his name and lord of Tirerril from 1383 to his death in 1397, and Aodh reigned 1384-1403, we can establish that it was written towards the end of the fourteenth century. A further colophon tells us that another section of BB was compiled at the house of Mac Aodhag in i Cepaig Ruittin ( RIA Cat. Ir. MSS 1612), a location since identified as the townland of Cappaghrattin in the barony of Clanwilliam, in Co. Tipperary ( Concheanainn 1981, 21).
Our knowledge of its subsequent history is quite patchy. It would appear to have remained in the hands of the Mac Donnchaidh family until 1522, for a later note informs us that in that year Aodh Dubh Domhnaill, Lord of Cen al Conaill, bought it from Mac Donnchaidh co ced da cloinn with the permission of his people for the not inconsiderable sum of 140 milch cows ( RIA Cat. Ir. MSS 1613; Cunningham and Gillespie 2013, 483-5). We do not know how long it remained in the possession of the U Dhomhnaill, but by the early seventeenth century Archbishop James Ussher had access to it and in 1639 he cites the Liber Ballitmotensis as a source for his Britannicarum ecclesiarum antiquitates of that year (Elrington and Todd 1829-64, vol. vi, 536). It was most likely part of his own collection ( RIA Cat. Ir. MSS 1614). Writing in his Great Book of Genealogies in 1666, Dubhaltach Mac Fhir Bhisigh mentions Lebhar Bhaile an Mhuta on Chorann as one of the great manuscript authorities found at that time in Dublin ( LGen 1031.7) and we know that by 1686 it was held in the library of Trinity College Dublin (Abbott and Gwynn 1921, xvii), where it quite possibly had been brought with the rest of Ussher s manuscripts after the clergyman s death in 1656 ( Mura le 1996, 194).
Having been borrowed in October 1719 by Anthony Raymond, a noted Irish-language scholar, patron of literature and fellow of the college (Harrison 1988, 77), BB was never again to return to TCD. Through Raymond, the manuscript became accessible to members of the learned circle in Dublin associated with the Neachtain family. Richard Tipper ( 1730) and Tadhg Neachtain ( c . 1752) transcribed material from it. It is quite likely that BB had been lent to Neachtain and was in his possession at the time of Raymond s sudden and unexpected death in London in 1726, for Neachtain continued to transcribe material from it for many years afterwards, as did Tipper, the latter completing an extensive transcript by 1728. 1 It is not certain if BB was still in Neachtain s possession at the time of his own death, but in the following two decades we find material from BB circulating among scribes and learned circles in Carraig na bhFe