AN GAOḊAL.
383
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE IX.
[Delivered July 10, 1856.]
Of the chief existing Ancient Books. The Lea¬
bar na h-Uidhre. The "Book of Leinster.'
The "Book of Ballymote." The MS common¬
ly called the Leabhar Bread. The "Yellow
Book of Lecain." The "Book of Lecain." Of
the other Books and ancient MSS. in the Libra¬
ries of Trinity College, Dublin; the Royal Irish
Academy; and elsewhere. The "Book of Lis¬
more." The MSS. called the Breton Law MSS.
We have now disposed of the chief national Ann¬
als, and we have noticed the other historical work
of the last and greatest of the annalists. But,
though in some respects, undoubtedly, the most
important, the compositions we have been consid¬
ering form, after all, but a small portion of the
immense mass of materials which exist in Irish
manuscripts for the elucidation of our history.
In the course of the present series of Lectures,
it will be my duty to describe to you, — not indeed
in the same detail with which I have thought it
right to deal with the annalists, but so as to make
you understand, generally at least, their nature,
value, and extent, — the vast collections of Histor¬
ic Tracts which our great MS. libraries fortunately
possess; and I shall also have to bring under your
notice some of the more important of those pieces
which have come down to us in the form of sys¬
tematic compositions, such as the "Wars of the
Danes," the "Boromean Tribute," etc.
But, before I do this, I desire to complete, in
the first place, part of my design, in this prepara¬
tory course, which consists of laying before you,
at one view, the larger features of our existing
stock of materials for the elucidation of ancient
Irish history. Accordingly, it is my intention
before passing to the consideration of the interes¬
ting pieces which record for us the special details
of local and personal history, to present to you the
outlines of the nature and contents of the great
books themselves in which not only all these
Tracts are preserved, but also the immense num¬
ber of Genealogies in which the names and tribes
of our people are recorded from the earliest ages;
books, many of which are themselves the sources
from which the O'Clerys, and other annalists be¬
fore them, drew all their knowledge.
Fortunately, of these great books we have, as
in the first Lecture you have been shortly inform¬
ed, many still remaining to us, in perfect preser¬
vation. And there is not one of you to whom the
originals themselves, not withstanding the wear
and tear of centuries, may not easily become in¬
telligible — so beautifully was the scribe's work
performed in early days in Ireland — whenever you
shall be disposed to devote but half the time to
the study of the noble old language of Erin, which
you do to the classic tongues of other ancient peo¬
ple. A visit to the Library of the Royal Irish A¬
cademy, or of Trinity College, will, however, little
serve to make you aware of the vast extent of the
treasures which lie in the dark-written musty-
looking old books you are shown there as curios¬
ities, unless you shall provide yourselves with the
key which some acquaintance with their characters
and language alone will afford. In the short ac¬
count, therefore, which I am about to lay before
you, of the great vellum books and MSS. in Dub¬
lin, I shall add, in every case, some approximate
calculation of their length, by reference to the
number of pages each book would fill, if printed
(the Irish text alone) in large quarto volumes,
such as those of O'Donovan's Annals of the Four
Masters. And when you have heard of what mat¬
ter the contents of these books consist, and reflect
upon the length to which, if printed in full, they
would extend, I think you will agree with me that
all that I have said upon the value of our MS.
treasures will, on better acquaintance with them,
be found to fall short of the reality.
The first of these ancient books that merits no¬
ice because it is the oldest is that which is known
by the name of Leabhar na h-Uidhre, or the Book
of the Dun Cow, to which I have shortly alluded
in a former Lecture. Of this book, so often refer¬
red to in Michael O'Clery's Prefaces, we have now,
unfortunately, but a fragment remaining — a frag¬
ment which consists, however, of 138 folio pages,
and is written on very old vellum.
The name and period of writing the book of
which it is a fragment, might, perhaps, be now
lost for ever, if the curious history of the book it¬
self had led to, in some degree indeed necessita¬
ted, their preservation. All that we know about
it is found in the two entries, written at different
periods, in a blank part of the second column of
the first page of folio 35. Of the first of these cu¬
rious entries, the following is a literal translation,
"Pray for Maelmuire, the son of Ceilechair, i.e,
the son of the son of Conn-na m Bochd, who
wrote and collected this book from various books.
Pray for Donnell, the son of Murtoch, son of Don¬
nell, son of Tadhg [or Teig], son of Brian, son of
Andreas, son of Brian Luighneach, son of Turloch
Mor [or the Great] O'Conor. It was this Donnell
that directed the renewal of the name of the per¬
son who wrote this beautiful book, by Sigraidh
O'Cuirnin and is it not as well for us to leave
our blessing with the owner of this book, as to
send it to him by the mouth of any other person?
