Bibliography
Dáibhí (Dáibhí Iarla)
Ó Cróinín 1954
Works authored
Walsh, Maura, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Cummian’s letter De controversia Paschali: together with a related Irish computistical tract De ratione conputandi, Studies and Texts, 86, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1988.
Works edited
Warntjes, Immo, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), Late antique calendrical thought and its reception in the early Middle Ages: proceedings from the 3rd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 16-18 July, 2010, Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 26, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017.
abstract:
Late antique and early medieval science is commonly defined by the quadrivium, the four subjects of the seven liberal arts relating to natural science: astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and music. The seven-fold division of learning was designed in Late Antiquity by authors such as Martianus Capella, and these authors were studied intensively from the Carolingian age onwards. Because these subjects still have currency today, this leads to the anachronistic view that the artes dominated intellectual thought in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Quite the contrary, the artes were an idealized curriculum with limited application in practice. Certainly, the artes do not help in our understanding of the intellectual endeavour between the early fifth and the late eighth centuries. This period was dominated by computus, a calendrical science with the calculation of Easter at its core. Only computus provides a traceable continuation of scientific thought from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The key questions were the mathematical modeling of the course of the sun through the zodiac (the Julian calendar) and of the moon phases (in various lunar calendars). This volume highlights key episodes in the transmission of calendrical ideas in this crucial period, and therewith helps explaining the transformation of intellectual culture into its new medieval Christian setting.
abstract:
Late antique and early medieval science is commonly defined by the quadrivium, the four subjects of the seven liberal arts relating to natural science: astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and music. The seven-fold division of learning was designed in Late Antiquity by authors such as Martianus Capella, and these authors were studied intensively from the Carolingian age onwards. Because these subjects still have currency today, this leads to the anachronistic view that the artes dominated intellectual thought in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Quite the contrary, the artes were an idealized curriculum with limited application in practice. Certainly, the artes do not help in our understanding of the intellectual endeavour between the early fifth and the late eighth centuries. This period was dominated by computus, a calendrical science with the calculation of Easter at its core. Only computus provides a traceable continuation of scientific thought from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The key questions were the mathematical modeling of the course of the sun through the zodiac (the Julian calendar) and of the moon phases (in various lunar calendars). This volume highlights key episodes in the transmission of calendrical ideas in this crucial period, and therewith helps explaining the transformation of intellectual culture into its new medieval Christian setting.
Warntjes, Immo, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), The Easter controversy of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages: its manuscripts, texts, and tables. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 18–20 July, 2008, Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 10, Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.
Contributions to journals
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “The earliest Irish and English books: time for a reappraisal?”, Peritia 28 (2017): 227–236.
abstract:
The Schaffhausen codex of Adomnán of Iona’s Vita Sancti Columbae, and the manuscript now known as St Cuthbert’s Gospel, are two of the most iconic manuscripts in the Insular tradition of book-production. The recent publication of a facsimile of the Schaffhausen MS., and of a collection of essays on the Cuthbert codex, offers an opportunity to reassess the opinions and views expressed by scholars on the subject in the last fifty years.
abstract:
The Schaffhausen codex of Adomnán of Iona’s Vita Sancti Columbae, and the manuscript now known as St Cuthbert’s Gospel, are two of the most iconic manuscripts in the Insular tradition of book-production. The recent publication of a facsimile of the Schaffhausen MS., and of a collection of essays on the Cuthbert codex, offers an opportunity to reassess the opinions and views expressed by scholars on the subject in the last fifty years.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “Letters of Kuno Meyer to Douglas Hyde, 1896–1919”, Studia Hibernica 42 (2016): 1–64.
abstract:
No single individual did more to ‘make Irish respectable’ in the decades before and after 1900 than the great German scholar Kuno Meyer. But while Meyer’s tireless activities as an editor and translator of Irish texts and as a populariser of ancient Irish literature has long been documented, less is known about his activities ‘behind the scenes’. A newly discovered cache of letters and postcards that Meyer sent to Douglas Hyde during the years 1898–1919 now reveals the full extent of that background activity and the extraordinary level of encouragement and support that he gave to the movement to establish a ‘native school’ of Irish scholars, culminating in the establishment (in 1903) of the School of Irish Learning in Dublin.
abstract:
No single individual did more to ‘make Irish respectable’ in the decades before and after 1900 than the great German scholar Kuno Meyer. But while Meyer’s tireless activities as an editor and translator of Irish texts and as a populariser of ancient Irish literature has long been documented, less is known about his activities ‘behind the scenes’. A newly discovered cache of letters and postcards that Meyer sent to Douglas Hyde during the years 1898–1919 now reveals the full extent of that background activity and the extraordinary level of encouragement and support that he gave to the movement to establish a ‘native school’ of Irish scholars, culminating in the establishment (in 1903) of the School of Irish Learning in Dublin.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “Who was Palladius, ‘first bishop of the Irish’?”, Peritia 14 (2000): 205–237.
abstract:
The year ad 431 is the most famous one in early Irish history. Prosper of Aquitaine, in his Chronicle, remarks that Palladius was sent to Ireland in that year by Pope Celestine as ‘first bishop to the Irish believing in Christ’. However, the consensus is that no trace of Palladius survives after that date, either in Irish or in continental sources. This paper presents new evidence for identifying Palladius and establishing where he came from, and for the place of his later cult in Ireland.
abstract:
The year ad 431 is the most famous one in early Irish history. Prosper of Aquitaine, in his Chronicle, remarks that Palladius was sent to Ireland in that year by Pope Celestine as ‘first bishop to the Irish believing in Christ’. However, the consensus is that no trace of Palladius survives after that date, either in Irish or in continental sources. This paper presents new evidence for identifying Palladius and establishing where he came from, and for the place of his later cult in Ireland.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “New light on Palladius”, Peritia 5 (1986): 276–283.
abstract:
Palladius, the earliest dateable figure in the history of the Irish church, has been generally treated as a ‘lost’ character, and almost all trace of the ‘Palladian’ church is believed to have disappeared. This paper argues that one text intimately associated with Palladius, his Easter table, has in fact survived and was known to Hiberno-Latin writers in the seventh century. The principles of that table are here reconstructed and its importance for the history of early Irish contacts with the continent is demonstrated.
abstract:
Palladius, the earliest dateable figure in the history of the Irish church, has been generally treated as a ‘lost’ character, and almost all trace of the ‘Palladian’ church is believed to have disappeared. This paper argues that one text intimately associated with Palladius, his Easter table, has in fact survived and was known to Hiberno-Latin writers in the seventh century. The principles of that table are here reconstructed and its importance for the history of early Irish contacts with the continent is demonstrated.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, and M. A. G. Ó Tuathaigh, “Festschrift Breatnach [Review of: de Brún, Pádraig, Seán Ó Coileáin, and Pádraig Ó Riain (eds), Folia Gadelica: essays presented by former students to R. A. Breatnach on the occasion of his retirement from the professorship of Irish language and literature at University College, Cork, Cork: Cork University Press, 1983.]”, Peritia 3 (1984): 585–589.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “Donatus. Finit Amen [Review of: Holtz, Louis, Donat et la tradition de l’enseignement grammatical: étude sur l’Ars Donati et sa diffusion (IVe-IXe siècle) et édition critique, Documents, études et répertoires publiés par l’Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes, Paris: C.N.R.S., 1981.]”, Peritia 2 (1983): 307–311.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “A seventh-century Irish computus from the circle of Cummianus”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 82 C (1982): 405–430.
abstract:
The Letter of Cummian on the Paschal question (c. A.D. 632) has long been recognised as one of the primary historical documents of the early Irish churches. The purpose of this paper is to show that a computus in Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 5413-22, is the work either of Cummian himself or of a member of his immediate circle, and therefore represents an important new witness to the state of scientific learning in seventh-century Ireland.
abstract:
The Letter of Cummian on the Paschal question (c. A.D. 632) has long been recognised as one of the primary historical documents of the early Irish churches. The purpose of this paper is to show that a computus in Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 5413-22, is the work either of Cummian himself or of a member of his immediate circle, and therefore represents an important new witness to the state of scientific learning in seventh-century Ireland.
Contributions to edited collections or authored works
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “Archbishop James Ussher (1581–1656) and the history of the Easter controversy”, in: Immo Warntjes, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), Late antique calendrical thought and its reception in the early Middle Ages: proceedings from the 3rd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 16-18 July, 2010, 26, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017. 309–351.
abstract:
Archbishop James Ussher is probably best known for his reckoning of the date of the creation of the world (at the beginning of the night preceeding 23 October 4004 BC). However, his calculations were all based on a meticulous study of the Old Testament and other early Christian and non-Christian chronographical writings. This paper announces the discovery of a previously-unnoticed Oxford manuscript that lists the impressive array of patristic and post-patristic writings on the subject of the early Easter controversy that he accumulated for his researches.
abstract:
Archbishop James Ussher is probably best known for his reckoning of the date of the creation of the world (at the beginning of the night preceeding 23 October 4004 BC). However, his calculations were all based on a meticulous study of the Old Testament and other early Christian and non-Christian chronographical writings. This paper announces the discovery of a previously-unnoticed Oxford manuscript that lists the impressive array of patristic and post-patristic writings on the subject of the early Easter controversy that he accumulated for his researches.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “The continuity of the Irish computistical tradition”, in: Immo Warntjes, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), Computus and its cultural context in the Latin West, AD 300–1200: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, 5, Turnhout: Brepols, 2010. 324–347.
abstract:
It is well known that the study of computus in Ireland in the sixth and seventh centuries was at a level not equaled anywhere else in Europe, with the possible exception of Visigothic Spain. Not so well known, however, is the fact that computistics continued to thrive in Ireland, not only into the eighth and ninth centuries, but well beyond that. In fact, the eleventh and twelfth centuries saw a high-point of scholarly activity, in the related fields of chronology and chronography, both in Latin and in the vernacular. The best known Irish scholar of the period, Marianus Scottus of Fulda and Mainz, established a pattern for computistical and chronographical studies for centuries to come. This paper presents some of the evidence for that Blütezeit.
abstract:
It is well known that the study of computus in Ireland in the sixth and seventh centuries was at a level not equaled anywhere else in Europe, with the possible exception of Visigothic Spain. Not so well known, however, is the fact that computistics continued to thrive in Ireland, not only into the eighth and ninth centuries, but well beyond that. In fact, the eleventh and twelfth centuries saw a high-point of scholarly activity, in the related fields of chronology and chronography, both in Latin and in the vernacular. The best known Irish scholar of the period, Marianus Scottus of Fulda and Mainz, established a pattern for computistical and chronographical studies for centuries to come. This paper presents some of the evidence for that Blütezeit.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “The earliest Old Irish glosses”, in: Rolf Bergmann, Elvira Glaser, and Claudine Moulin-Fankhänel (eds), Mittelalterliche volkssprachige Glossen: Internationale Fachkonferenz des Zentrums für Mittelalterstudien der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2. bis 4. August 1999, Heidelberg: C. Winter, 2001. 7–31.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “Bernhard Bischoff (20.XII.1906-17.IX.1991)”, in: Thomas OʼLoughlin (ed.), The Scriptures and early medieval Ireland: proceedings of the 1993 Conference of the Society for Hiberno-Latin Studies on Early Irish Exegesis and Homilectics, 31, Steenbrugge, Turnhout: In Abbatia S. Petri, Brepols, 1999. 205–215.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “Cummianus Longus and the iconography of Christ and the apostles in early Irish literature”, in: Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Liam Breatnach, and Kim R. McCone (eds), Sages, saints and storytellers: Celtic studies in honour of Professor James Carney, 2, Maynooth: An Sagart, 1989. 268–279.
Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí, “Early Echternach manuscript fragments with Old Irish glosses”, in: Georges Kiesel, and Jean Schroeder (eds), Willibrord: Apostel der Niederlande, Gründer der Abtei Echternach: Gedenkgabe zum 1250. Todestag des angelsächsischen Missionars, Luxembourg: Imprimerie Saint-Paul, 1989. 135–143.
As honouree
Moran, Pádraic, and Immo Warntjes (eds), Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship. A Festschrift for Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 14, Turnhout: Brepols, 2015.
abstract:
The pivotal role of Ireland in the development of a decidedly Christian culture in early medieval Europe has long been recognized. Still, Irish scholarship on early medieval Ireland has tended not to look beyond the Irish Sea, while continental scholars try to avoid Hibernica by reference to its special Celtic background. Following the lead of the honorand of this volume, Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, this collection of 27 essays aims at contributing to a reversal of this general trend. By way of introduction to the period, the first section deals with chronological problems faced by modern scholars as well as the controversial issues relating to the reckoning of time discussed by contemporary intellectuals. The following three sections then focus on Ireland’s interaction with its neighbours, namely Ireland in the insular world, continental influences in Ireland, and Irish influences on the Continent. The concluding section is devoted to modern scholarship and the perception of the Middle Ages in modern literature.
abstract:
The pivotal role of Ireland in the development of a decidedly Christian culture in early medieval Europe has long been recognized. Still, Irish scholarship on early medieval Ireland has tended not to look beyond the Irish Sea, while continental scholars try to avoid Hibernica by reference to its special Celtic background. Following the lead of the honorand of this volume, Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, this collection of 27 essays aims at contributing to a reversal of this general trend. By way of introduction to the period, the first section deals with chronological problems faced by modern scholars as well as the controversial issues relating to the reckoning of time discussed by contemporary intellectuals. The following three sections then focus on Ireland’s interaction with its neighbours, namely Ireland in the insular world, continental influences in Ireland, and Irish influences on the Continent. The concluding section is devoted to modern scholarship and the perception of the Middle Ages in modern literature.
