Manuscripts

Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1316 Composite Irish compilation: law, medicine, etc.

  • Irish
  • s. xiv composite manuscript
  • Irish manuscripts
  • vellum
A composite manuscript containing early Irish legal tracts and miscellaneous other texts. The various sections are currently bound in five volumes and used to be bound together with the manuscript now known as TCD 1317 (H 2. 15b).
Identifiers
Location
Shelfmark
H 2. 15a
Classification
Cat. no. 1316
Type
manuscript miscellanies
Provenance and related aspects
Language
Irish
Date
s. xiv
14th century.
Origin, provenance
Origin: Ireland
Ireland
No short description available

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Provenance: ass. with Mac Aodhagáin (Aodh)
Mac Aodhagáin (Aodh)
(fl. 1350)
Irish scribe

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The occurrence of the name of Aodh Mac Aodhagáin on p. 36 has been taken as evidence for a Mac Aodhagáin provenance.
Later provenance: ass. with Mac Fhir Bhisigh (Dubhaltach)
Mac Fhir Bhisigh (Dubhaltach)
(d. 1671)
Dubhaltach (Óg) Mac Fhir Bhisigh, Irish historian and scribe, member of the learned Mac Fhir Bhisigh family in Connacht

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The legal fragments found on pp. 11-31, pp. 39-66 and pp. 43-46 (alias 105-108) appear to been separately acquired by Dubhaltach Mac Fhir Bhisigh (d. 1671), who then brought them together. This is suggested by the fact that his hand is witnessed in separate title headings for all three sections. (Senchas Mor) for p. 1 (11?) and p. 39.
Later provenance: ass. with Ó Gnímh (Eóin)
Ó Gnímh (Eóin)
(fl. c. 1700)
descendant of a dispossessed family of hereditary poets to the Ó Néill family of Clandeboy. He is primarily known for having sold a number of Irish manuscripts to Edward Lhuyd during the latter's tour through Ireland in 1699/1700.

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Later, after Dubhaltach's death, the fragments came into the possession of Eoin Ó Gnímh (Eoin Agnew). His name is found on p. 1 on there is a note by him on p. 11.
Later provenance: ass. with Lhuyd (Edward)
Lhuyd (Edward)
(d. 1709)
No short description available

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Ó Gnímh (Eóin)
Ó Gnímh (Eóin)
(fl. c. 1700)
descendant of a dispossessed family of hereditary poets to the Ó Néill family of Clandeboy. He is primarily known for having sold a number of Irish manuscripts to Edward Lhuyd during the latter's tour through Ireland in 1699/1700.

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Edward Lhuyd acquired the MSS from Eoin Ó Gnímh. The numbering of the pages is the doing of Lhuyd.
Later provenance: ass. with Sebright (John)
Sebright (John)
(1725–1794)
No short description available

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Sebright (Thomas Saunders)Sebright (Thomas Saunders)
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.

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In 1716, the MS passed into the hands of Sir Thomas Saunders Sebright, thence to his son Thomas Saunders and afterwards, to his brother John.
Later provenance: Dublin, Trinity College
Dublin, Trinity College
No short description available

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ass. with Burke (Edmund)
Burke (Edmund)
(1729/30–1797)
Dublin-born politician, historian and author

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On Edmund Burke's advice, Irish MSS werer given to TCD in 1786, 31 Oct., and a list was made by the end of that year.
Later provenance: ass. with Powell (Roger)Powell (Roger)
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.

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The modern binding into five volumes is the work of Roger Powell. CL p, 35.
Hands, scribes
Hands indexed:
Hand of the scribe
Annotator (Mac Fhir Bhisigh) Dubhaltach Mac Fhir BhisighMac Fhir Bhisigh (Dubhaltach)
(d. 1671)
Dubhaltach (Óg) Mac Fhir Bhisigh, Irish historian and scribe, member of the learned Mac Fhir Bhisigh family in Connacht
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Annotator (Lhuyd) Edward LhuydLhuyd (Edward)
(d. 1709)
Llwyd (Edward)
No short description available
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Codicological information
UnitCodicological unit. Indicates whether the entry describes a single leaf, a distinct or composite manuscript, etc.
composite manuscript
Material
vellum
Distinct units

Inserted after the flyleaves

(1) Letter from John Sebright to Charles Vallancey (1782).

(2) Note about mules belonging to the Cardinal.

Volume 1

pp. 1-10

Medical work. 5 folia.

Volume 2

pp. 11-38
pp. 39-66
pp. 43-46

Legal heptads. These folios were formerly inserted in the middle of the previous section, hence the pagination, and correspond to pp. 105-108 in Abbott’s catalogue..

Volume 3

pp. 67-70

Narrative literature.

Volume 4

pp. 71-86

Fragment (8 folios), including Immacallam in dá thúarad (pp. 71-77) and legal material concerning poets (pp. 78-86).

Volume 5

pp. 87-87*
Dublin, Trinity College, …  pp. 87-87*

Fragment (2 folia).

pp. 88-88*
Dublin, Trinity College, …  pp. 88-88*

Fragment (1 folio).

pp. 89-90
Dublin, Trinity College, …  pp. 89-90

Fragment (1 folio).

pp. 91-92
Dublin, Trinity College, …  pp. 91-92

Genealogical (1 folio).

pp. 93-94
Dublin, Trinity College, …  pp. 93-94

Fragment (1 folio) of the history of Thebes. Earlier pagination in ink: 380-381.

pp. 95-96
Dublin, Trinity College, …  pp. 95-96

Fragment (1 folio) of an Irish sermon on Mary. Earlier pagination in ink: 382-383.

pp. 97-104

Fragment of Lebor gabála Érenn (Recension C). Earlier pagination in ink: 384-391.

For the folios paginated as 105-108 in Abbott’s catalogue, see the item listed at pp. 43-46 above.

Table of contents
Legend
Texts

Links to texts use a standardised title for the catalogue and so may or may not reflect what is in the manuscript itself, hence the square brackets. Their appearance comes in three basic varieties, which are signalled through colour coding and the use of icons, , and :

  1. - If a catalogue entry is both available and accessible, a direct link will be made. Such links are blue-ish green and marked by a bookmark icon.
  2. - When a catalogue entry does not exist yet, a desert brown link with a different icon will take you to a page on which relevant information is aggregated, such as relevant publications and other manuscript witnesses if available.
  3. - When a text has been ‘captured’, that is, a catalogue entry exists but is still awaiting publication, the same behaviour applies and a crossed eye icon is added.

The above method of differentiating between links has not been applied yet to texts or citations from texts which are included in the context of other texts, commonly verses.

Locus

While it is not a reality yet, CODECS seeks consistency in formatting references to locations of texts and other items of interest in manuscripts. Our preferences may be best explained with some examples:

  • f. 23ra.34: meaning folio 23 recto, first column, line 34
  • f. 96vb.m: meaning folio 96, verso, second column, middle of the page (s = top, m = middle, i = bottom)
    • Note that marg. = marginalia, while m = middle.
  • p. 67b.23: meaning page 67, second column, line 23

Sources

Primary sources This section typically includes references to diplomatic editions, facsimiles and photographic reproductions, notably digital image archives, of at least a major portion of the manuscript. For editions of individual texts, see their separate entries.

Digitisation wanted
[facs. ed.] Best, R. I., and Rudolf Thurneysen [introduction], Senchas Már: facsimile of the oldest fragments from Ms.H.2.15 in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, Facsimiles in Collotype of Irish Manuscripts, 1, Dublin: Stationery Office, 1931.
Facsimile edition of the legal material
Best, R. I., “The oldest fragments of the Senchas Már: addendum et corrigenda”, Analecta Hibernica 10 (1941): 299–303.  
Addendum and corrigenda to Senchas Már: facsimile of the oldest fragments from Ms. H.2.15 in the library of Trinity College (1931)
[dipl. ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 2, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
comments: numbered pp. 339–744; diplomatic edition of legal material from: London, British Library, MS Harley 432; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1316; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337.
423–562 Diplomatic edition of legal material on pp. 11a-42b, 47a-66b, 43a-46b, 78a-86b

Secondary sources (select)

Abbott, T. K., and E. J. Gwynn, Catalogue of the Irish manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co, 1921.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
90–92, 340–341 direct link direct link
Kelly, Fergus, “Texts and transmissions: the law-texts”, in: Próinséas Ní Chatháin, and Michael Richter (eds), Ireland and Europe in the early Middle Ages: texts and transmissions / Irland und Europa im früheren Mittelalter: Texte und Überlieferung, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002. 230–242.
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
July 2011, last updated: November 2022