844
AN GAODHAL.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
Lecture 1.
(Continued)
Lastly should be noticed the Latin MSS. from
which Zuess drew the materials for the Irish por¬
tion of his celebrated Grammatica Celtica (Lipsiӕ
1353). The language of the Irish glosses in these
codices, is probably older, in point of transcript¬
ion, than any specimens of Irish now left in Ire¬
land, excepting the few passages and glosses con¬
tained in the Books of Armagh and Dimma, with
the orthography and grammatical forms of which
the Zuessian glosses correspond admirably. The fol¬
lowing is a list of the Zuessian Codices Hibernici.
which, as Zuess himself observes, are all of the 8th
or 9th century, and were either brought from Ire¬
land, or written by Irish monks in continental
monasteries.
I. A codex of Priscian, preserved in the library
at St. Gall in Switzerland, and crowded with Irish
glosses, interlinear or marginal, from the beginn¬
ing down to page 222. A marginal gloss at p. 194
shows that the scribe was connected with Inis Ma¬
doc, an islet in the sake of Templeport, county
Leitrim.
II. A codex of St. Paul's Epistles, preserved in
the library of the university of Wurzburg, and
containing a still greater number of glosses than
the St. Gall Priscian.
III. A Latin commentary on the Psalms formerly
attributed to St Jerome, but which Muratori, Pey¬
ron, and Zuess concur in ascribing to St. Colum¬
banus. This codex, which is now preserved in the
Ambrosian library at Milan, was brought thither
from Bobbio. It contains a vast amount of Irish
glosses, and will probably, when properly investi¬
gated throw more light on the ancient Irish lan¬
guage than any other MS
IV. A codex containing some of the venerable
Bede's works, preserved at Carlsruhe, and former¬
ly belonging to the Irish monastery of Reichenau
This MS. contains, besides many Irish glosses, two
entries which may tend to fix its date ; one is a
notice of the death of Aed, king of Ireland, in the
year 817; the other a notice of the death of Muir¬
chad mac Mialeduin at Clonmacnois, in St. Ciaran's
inda or bed.
V. A second codex of Priscian, also preserved at
Carlsruhe, and brought thither from Reichenau.
It contains fewer Irish glosses than the St. Gall
Priscian.
VI. A miscellaneous codex, preserved at St. Gall
(No. 1395), and containing some curious charms
against strangury, headache, etc., which have been
printed by Zuess, Goibnenn the smith, and Dian¬
cecht the leech, of the Tuatha De Denann, are
mentioned in these incantations.
VII. A codex preserved at Cambray, and con¬
taining, besides the canons of an Irish Council held
A. D. 684, a fragment of an Irish sermon intermix¬
ed with Latin sentences. This MS. was written
between the years 763 and 790. A facsimile, but
incurate, of this Irish fragment may be found in
appendix A (unpublished) to the report of the Eng¬
lish Record Commission.
It is, I may observe in conclusion, a circum¬
stance of great importance, that so much of our
ancient tongue should have been preserved in the
form of glosses on the words of a language so thor¬
oughly known as the Latin. Let us avail our¬
selves of our advantages in this respect by collect¬
ing and arranging the whole of these glosses, be¬
fore time or accident shall have rendered it diffi¬
cult or impossible to do so.
I have thus endeavored to place before you some
evidence of an early cultivation of the language
and literature of Ireland. The subject would re¬
quire much more extensive illustration and much
more minute discussion than can be given to it in
a public lecture: and time did not allow more than
a rapid enumeration of the more ancient works,
and a brief glance at their contents, such as you
have heard. Sufficient, however, has been said in
opening to you the consideration of the subject, to
show what an immense field lies before us, and
what abundant materials still exist for the illus¬
tration of the History and Antiquities of our
country, and above all, of that most glorious period
in our Annals, the early ages of Catholicism in Ire¬
land.
The materials are, I say, still abundant; we
want but men able to use them as they deserve.
LECTURE II.
Of the Cuilmenn. — Of the Tain bo Chuailgne, —
Of Cormac Mas Airt. — Of the Book of Acaill.
In speaking of the earliest written documents
of ancient Erinu, of which any account has come
down to us, I mentioned that we had incidental
notices of the existence, at a very remote period,
of a Book called the Cuilmen. It is brought
under consideration by reference made to a very
ancient tale, of which copies still exist. The first
notices of the Cuilmenn have been already partly
alluded to in the first lecture, but we shall now
consider them at greater length ; and in doing so,
we shall avail ourselves of the opportunity thus af¬
forded, to illustrate, in passing, a period of our
history, remote indeed, and but little known, yet
filled with stirring incidents, and distinguished by
the presence of very remarkable characters.
According to the accounts given in the Book of
Leinster, to which I shall present re er, Dallan
Forgaill, the chief poet and File of Erinn, having
died about the year 598, Senchan Torpeist, then
a File of distinction, was called upon to pronounce
the funeral elegy or oration on the deceased bard.
The young File acquitted himself of this so much
to the satisfaction of his assembled brethren, that
they immediately elected him Ard Ollamh in File¬
decht, that is chief File of Erinn.
Some time after this, Senchan called a meeting
of the Files of Erinn, to ascertain whether any of
them remembered the whole of the celebrated tale
of the Tain Bo Chuailgne, or "Cattle spoil of Cua¬
ilgne" (a place now called Cooly, in the modern
county Louth.) All the Files said that they remem¬
bered only fragments of it. On receiving this answer
Senchan addressed himself to his pupils, and ask¬
ed if any of them would take his blessing and go
into the country of Letha to learn the Tain, which
a certain Saoi or professor had taken to the east
after the Cuilmenn (that is, the Book called Cuil¬
menn), had been carried away. (Letha was the
ancient name, in the Gaedhilg, for Italy, particu¬
larly that region of it in which the city of Rome is
situated.
