Agents



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About the selected image
Book of Kells (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 58), f. 200r. Retrieved through IIIF from digitalcollections.tcd.ie.

A module for identifying agents - encompassing persons, peoples and organisations - and managing information about them has been around for many years, continually evolving as time went by, but what was absent all this time is a public interface for accessing relevant data in a user-friendly way.

This is a first attempt at offering such an interface, which is provided "as-is" and should be considered beta-quality for now (not that there is any official product release cycle as such but using the label is a convenient means to sound the right alarm bells). It currently consists of a basic search, aggregated data overviews for individual agents, and hover-card labels that you will meet elsewhere in the catalogue.

I am aware of duplicates, uneven coverage and other shortcomings that typically arise from the progressive nature of this website or simply, lack of personpower. An earlier version of the interface was available to editors partly because it helps us address some of those issues. None of these objections, however, seemed to weigh heavily against the alternative, which is having nothing at all to offer.

Note that for convenience's sake, many agents are not formally indexed but are nonetheless included by exclusive virtue of being linked. It is a wonderful forte of the system that allows us to retrieve and bring together disparate data from disparate data sources, but some useful metadata will be missing and discoverability is more limited as a result. For instance, we may be linking to a scribe whose name and associated data can be retrieved and presented, but without, say, a floruit it will be difficult to find this person within the appropriate time range. I say "difficult" because it is possible, to an extent, to rely on the dates we have, if any, for associated objects (manuscripts, scribal hands), but such a circuitous approach comes with limitations of its own and is not necessarily methodologically sound.

Meanwhile, I hope that the new interface will improve your experience in using this website. Next up are thematic categories for scribes (in the broadest, non-pejorative sense of the word), authors and scholars.

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Randomised results

Scribes
  • Thomas Arthur
    1593–1675
    Limerick physician educated at Bordeaux and a Catholic with an interest in devotional literature. One of his better known patients was bishop James Ussher, who at one time appears to have lent him a manuscript of the so-called Kilkenny recension of Latin lives of Irish saints. A manuscript of transcripts by Thomas is still extant.
  • Aindrias Mac Cruitín
    c.1650–1738
    Irish poet
  • Arthur Brownlow
    1645–1712
    Anglo-Irish landowner at Lurgan (Co. Armagh) whose collection of Irish manuscripts attracted the attention of Edward Lhuyd in 1699.
  • Seán Mac Gabhráin
    fl. early 18th c.
    Irish scribe.
  • François-Marie Luzel
    d. 1895
    Known in Breton as Fañch an Uhel, a collector of Breton folklore and songs; author/compiler of works such as Gwerziou Breiz-Izel: chants populaires de la Basse-Bretagne (1868–74) and Kontadennoù ar Bobl (1847–92).
  • Hugh Maurice [1775-1825]
    1775–1825
    Welsh skinner and scribe.
  • Seán Ó Catháin [scribe]
    fl. 1720s
    Irish scribe responsible for BL MS Egerton 184 and RIA MS 23 G 4.
  • William Jordan [of Helston]
    fl. 1611
    Cornishman responsible for an incomplete transcript of the Cornish biblical play known as The creacion of the world or Gwreans an bys.
  • John Davies [of Mallwyd]
    d. 1644
    John Davies of Mallwyd, Welsh scholar, author of a Welsh grammar and dictionary
  • James Scurry
    1790?–1828
    Irish: Séamus Ó Scoireadh, farmer, scholar and translator from Kilkenny.
  • Máel Brigte húa Máel Úanaig
  • Aughuistín Magraidhin
    fl. c.1349–d. 1405
    Irish chronicler and canon regular at the Augustinian priory of All Saints on Oileán na Naomh (Saints Island) in Lough Ree (Co. Longford).
  • Owen Connellan
    c.1797–1871
  • John Goolde [friar and scribe]
    fl. c.17th century, first half
    Friar, guardian of the Franciscan friary in Cashel, and scribe who was responsible for a copy of the Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae and had worked together with the Four Masters.
  • Fear Feasa Ó Maoil Chonaire
    fl. 17th century
    Irish scribe; one of the scholars known as the Four Masters
  • Authors

    A random selecton of authors and those so described.

  • Díarmait of Killeshin
    Díarmait (Diarmuid) of Killeshin, early Irish saint whose church is Glenn Uissen, now Killeshin (Co. Laois). His feast-day is 8 July.
  • Athirne
    Chief poet and satirist of the Ulstermen in the Ulster Cycle.
  • Dubthach maccu Lugair
    supp. fl. 432
    Legendary Irish poet and legal expert, who plays an important role in the pseudo-historical prologue to the ''Senchas Már''.
  • Edward Dafydd [of Margam]
    c.1600–1678?
    Welsh bardic poet.
  • Bleddyn Fardd
    fl. c. 1258–1284
  • William Evans [d. 1776]
    d. 1776
    Welsh Presbyterian scholar, known for A New Welsh–English Dictionary (1771)
  • Rufus Festus Avienus
    s. iv2
    Roman author whose poem Ora maritima is thought to draw on the Massaliote Periplus, a hypothetical Greek text written for merchants from Marseilles (Massilia).
  • Gutun Owain
    fl. second half of the 15th century
    Gutun Owain (Gruffudd ap Huw ab Owain), Welsh poet and scribe
  • Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh
    c.1606–1677?
    Irish theologian; author of Lucerna fidelium/Lochrann na gcreidmheach (1676) and a grammar on the Irish language, Grammatica Latino-Hibernica (1677).
  • Fearghal mac Tomáis Mac Eochadha
    fl. 16th century
    Fearghal (mac Tomáis) Mac Eochadha of Donard (Dún Ard), Irish poet, mentioned as a rymor in the Fiants of Elizabeth I, and identified as the author of the poems beg. Mairg do-ní deimhin da dhóigh and Mairg do-ní nama da charaid
  • Uilliam Ó Domhnaill
    d. 1628
    Irish churchman, archbishop of Tuam (Church of Ireland); scholar of Trinity College, Dublin; continued an Irish translation of the New Testament
  • Julian Maunoir
    1606–1683
    French Jesuit priest who was active in Brittany.
  • John Mandeville
    supp. fl. 14th century
    A fictitious English knight to whom a travel memoir, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, is ascribed. The work first appeared in French and English and was translated into many other languages, including Irish and Welsh.
  • William Thomas [Islwyn]
    1832–1878
    Welsh minister and poet, known by his bardic name Islwyn.
  • Muirchú
    fl. 7th c.
    Author of a Life of St Patrick