264
AN GAODHAL.
the other Annals, of which I have given you some
account, preserved in only almost inaccessible re¬
cesses of a few libraries of MSS. It is fortunate that
you can now consult for yourselves (in the pages
of a beautifully printed edition), those invaluable
records, whose importance it has been my object
in this lecture shortly to explain to you, and which
if you would acquire an accurate acquaintance with
your country's history, you must diligently study
again and again.
Portions of these Annals had been published be¬
fore the appearance of the great volumes to which
I allude.
The Rev. Charles O'Conor, librarian to the late
Duke of Buckingham, printed, in 1826, an edition
of what is called the First Part of those Annals
(that part, namely, which ends at the year 1171, or
about the period of the Norman Invasion). It oc¬
cupies the whole of the third volume of his Rerum
Hibernicarum Scriptores, a large quarto of 840 pa¬
ges. It is printed from the autograph text in the
Stowe library, and the editor has given the Irish
text (but in Latin characters), as well as a transla¬
tion and copious notes in the Latin language. This
edition is certainly valuable, but it is very inaccu¬
rate. I need not, however, occupy your time with
any detailed account of it, not only because it has
been since superseded by a work of real authority
but because I have already discussed (and shall
have reason again to observe at some little length
on) the literary capability and the historical know¬
ledge of the reverend editor.
A translation of the Second Part of the Annals,
that is, from A.D. 1171 to the end of the work at
A.D 1616, was published in Dublin in 1846, by the
late B. Geraghty, of Anglesea street. The original
Irish is not given in this edition, but the transla¬
tion was made by Mr Owen Connellan from a co¬
py transcribed some years before by him from the
autograph in the library of the Royal Irish Acad¬
emy. This volume, though containing only the
translation, extends to 720 pages, large 4to, close¬
ly printed in double columns, with notes by Dr.
Mac Dermott.
I have mentioned both these publications only
because it would be improper to omit noticing the
fact that such attempts had been made to place the
substance of the Annals in the hands of the read¬
ing public at large. But I need not enter into any
criticism upon the lobors of Mr. Connellan any
more than those of Dr. O'Conor. For the Annals
of the Four Masters are now accessible to all, in a
form the most perfect as regards typography, and
the most copious and correct as regards transla¬
tion and annotation, that the anxious student of
our history can desire. I allude of course, to the
magnificent work to which I have more than once
referred, edited by Dr. John O'Donovan, and pub¬
lished to the world, in 1851, by Mr. George Smith
of Grafton Street. It is to this edition that every
student in future must apply himself, if he desire
to acquire only reliable information; it is, in the
present state of our knowledge, the standard edi¬
tion of that work, which must form the basis of all
fruitful study of the history of Ireland, and it is
in consequence of this, its peculiar character, that
I feel bound to lay so strong an emphasis upon my
recommendation of Dr. O'Donovan's Annals to
your special, if not exclusive, attention.
Dr. O'Donovan's work is in seven large quarto
volumes; and the immense extent of the O'Clerys'
labours may be imagined by those of my hearers
who have not yet opened these splendid books,
when I inform them that the seven volumes con¬
tain no less than 4,215 pages of closely printed
matter. The text is given in the Irish character,
and is printed in the beautiful type employed in
the printing office of Trinity College, and the
forms of which were carefully drawn from the ear¬
liest authorities by the accurate and elegant hand
of my respected friend, Dr. Petrie. The transla¬
tion is executed with extreme care. The immense
mass of notes contains a vast amount of informa¬
tion, embracing every variety of topic — historical,
topographical, and genealogical — upon which the
text requires elucidation, or correction; and I
may add, that of the accuracy of the researches
which have borne fruit in that information, I can
myself, in almost every instance, bear personal
testimony. There is but one thing to be regretted
in respect to Dr. O'Donovan's text, and that is the
circumstance to which I have called your attention.
In the absence of both of the autograph manus¬
cripts of the first Part of the work (that is, before
A.D. 1171), one of which is kept safe from the eye
of every Irish scholar in the Stowe collection, now
in the possession of Lord Ashburnham, while the
other still remains in the Library of St. Isidore's
in Rome, the editor was obliged to take Dr O'Con¬
or's inaccurate text, correcting it as best he could
by collation with two good copies which exist in
Dublin. The second part of the annals is printed
from the autograph MS. in the Royal Irish Acad¬
my, compared with another autograph copy in
Trinity College. The text of this part is, there¬
fore, absolutey free from errors.
This noble work, extending to so great a length,
and occupied (notes as well as text) with so many
thousands of subjects, personal and historical, had
need of an Index as copious as itself to complete
its practical importance as a book of reference.
This great labour has been included in the plan
of Dr. O'Donovan's publication, and the student
will find appended to it two complete Indexes, one
to all the names of persons, the other to all names
of places referred to througont the entire. So that
in the form in which the work appears, as well as
in the substantial contents of these splenid volumes
there is absolutely nothing left to be desired.
Upon the learning and well earned reputation
of the editor, Dr. O'Donovan, it would all become
me, for many years his intimate fellow labourer in
the long untrodden path of Irish historical inqui¬
ry, to enlarge. But I cannot pass from the subject
of this lecture without recording the grateful sense
which I am sure all of you (when you examine the
magnificent volumes of which I have been speak¬
ing) must feel, as I do, of the singular public spi¬
rit of Mr. George Smith, at whose sole risk and
expense this vast publication was undertaken and
completed. There is no instance that I know of,
in any country, of a work so vast to be undertak¬
en, much less of any completed in a style so per¬
fect and so beautiful, by the enterprise of a private
publisher. Mr. Smith's edition of the Annals was
brought out in a way worthy of a great national
work, — nay, worthy of it, had it been undertaken
at the public cost of a great, rich, and powerful
people, ss alone such works have been undertaken
in other countries. And the example of so much
sprit in an Irish publisher — the printing of such a
book in a city like Dublin, so long shorn of met¬
ropolitan weath as well as honours — cannot fail
to redound abroad to the credit of the whole coun¬
try, as well as to that of our enterprising fellow-
citizen. As, then, the memory of the Four Mas-
