AN GAOḊAL.
239
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE VII.
[Delivered July 3, 1856.]
"These are the old books they had the book of
Cluan mac Nois a church], blessed by Saint Cia¬
ran, son of the Carpenter; the book of the Island
of Saints, in Loch Ribh; the book of Seanah mic
Maghnusa, in Loch Erne; the book of Cluan Ua
Maelchonaire; book of the O'Duigenans, of Kilro¬
nan: historical book of Lecan Mic Firbisigh,
which was procured them after the transcription
of the grerter part of the [work, and from which
they transcribed all the important matter they
found which they deemed necessary, and which
was not in the first books they had; for neither
the book of Cluain nor the book of the Island were
(carried) beyond the year of the age of our Lord
1227.
"The second, which begins with the year 1208,
was commenced this year of the age of Chris 1635
in which Father Christopher Ullthach (O'Dunley)
was guardian.
"These are the books from which were trans¬
cribed the greatest part of this work ;— the same
book of the O'Mulconrys, as far as the year 1505,
and this was the last year which it contained; the
book of the O'Duigenans, of which we have spoken
from (the year) 900 to 1563; the book of Seanadh
Mic Maghnusa, which extended to the year 1532;
a portion of the book of Cucogry, son of Dermot,
son of Tadhg Cam O'Clerigh, from the year 1281
to 1537 ; the book of the Mac Bruaideadha (Maoi¬
lin og), from the year 1588 to 1602.
"We have seen all these books with the learned
men of whom we have spoken before, and other his¬
torical works beside them. In proof of everything
which has been written above, the following per¬
sons put their hand to this in the convent of Don¬
egal, the tenth day of August, the age of Christ
being one thousand six hundred and thirty-six.
Brother Bernardine O'Clery,
Guardian of Donegal.
Brother Maurice Ulltach.
Brother Maurice Ulltach.
Brother Bonaventura O'Donnell,
Jubilate Lector."
You will have noticed that the last signature to
this testimonium is that of Brother Bonaventura
O'Donnell. Up to the year 1843, this signature
was read as "O'Donnell" only, and it is curious
that the learned and acute Charles O'Conor of Be¬
lanagar, should not only have so read it, but also
written that this was the counter-signature of the
O'Donnell, Prince of Donegal. The Rev Charles
O'Conor followed his grandfather in reading it in
the same way in 1825.
It was Dr Petrie that first identified (and pur¬
chased, at the sale of the library of Mr Austin Coo¬
per), the original volume of the second part of
the Annals, which contains this testimonium,
and placed it in the library of the Royal Irish A¬
cademy. He immediately afterwards wrote a pa¬
per, which was read before the Academy on the
16th of March, 1831, entitled "Remarks on the
History and Authenticity of the Autograph origi¬
nal of the Annals of the Four Masters, now depo¬
sited in e Library of the Royal Irish Academy"
This profound and accomplished antiquary fol¬
lowed the O'Conors unsuspectingly, in reading
these signatures, and his and their reading was re¬
ceived and adopted by all the Irish scholars in
Dublin at the time, and for some seventeen years
after. However, in the year 1843, the Royal Irish
Academy did me the honor to employ me to draw
up a descriptive catalogue of their fine collection
of Irish manuscripts. For some considerable time
before this I had entertained a suspicion that O'¬
Donnell, Prince of Donegal, was a false reading
of the signature, for this, among other reasons,
that there was no "O'Donnell," Prince of Donegal
in existence at the time, namely, in the year 1636.
nor more than sixteen years before that period,
those titles having become extinct when Hugh Roe
O'Donnell, and after him, his brother Rory, had
received and adopted the English title of the Earl
of Tirconnell at the beginning of that century.
The first of these brothers having died in Spain in
1602, and the second having fled from Ireland in
1607, and died in Rome in 1608, and no chief hav¬
ing been lawfully elected in his place, consequent¬
ly there was no man living in 1836 who could with
propriety sign the name "O'Donnell" to this tes¬
timonium. And, even if there had been, it would
be an act totally unbecoming his name and house
to extend the dignity of his name only to a great
national literary work, which was compiled with¬
in his own ancient principality, yet at the expense
of one of the chiefs of a different race and province.
Satisfied with these deductions, and seeing that
there was room for a Christian name before the
surname, when I came to describe this volume in
my catalogue I applied to the Council of the Aca¬
demy, through the then secretary, Dr. Todd (now
President of the Academy), for liberty to apply a
proper preparation to the part of the vellum which
appeared blank before the name O'Donnell, and
between it and the margin of the page. The Aca¬
demy complied with my request. I took the neces¬
sary means of reviving the ink, and in a little time
I was rewarded by the plain and clear appearance
of what had not before been dreamt of. There sure
enough, were the name and the title of Bonaventu¬
ra O'Donnell, with the words added, Jubilate Lec¬
tor.
Mr. Owen Connellan was ignorant of this read¬
ing when his translation of this volume of the An¬
nals was published in the year 1846. Dr. O'Don¬
ovan, the able editor of the more elaborate, learn¬
ed, and perfect edition of this volume, in the intro¬
duction published by him to that work in 1848, ac¬
knowledged with satisfaction the discovery I had
made, justly important as it seemed to him at the
time. In the recast of his introduction to the first
division of the work, as corrected for publication
in 1851, he has, however, only retained the read¬
ing, omitting to refer to what I had done, and thus
leaving uncertain at what time, under what circum¬
stances, and by whom, the true reading was disco¬
vered, and these circumstances I have thought it
but fair to myself here again to place on record.
In making use of the rich materials thus collect¬
ed O'Clery, as might be expected from his educa¬
tion and position, took special care to collect from
every available source, and to put on imperishable
record, among the great monuments of the nation,
not only the succession and obits of all the mon-
