Egerton MS 92

A composite manuscript clearly divided into five sections, as follows:

(1) astronomical and medical texts (ff. 4-5);

(2) theological, religious and historical texts (ff. 6-11);

(3) historical texts with an especial interest in Fermoy and a homily. The date 1453 is given in a colophon (ff. 12-17);

(4) fragments of Tochmarc Emire and Togail Bruidne Dá Derga (ff. 18-25). This section was originally part of the Book of Fermoy: Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 E 29 (ff. 18-25);

(5) religious and historical texts (ff. 26-32).

Much of the text has been lost through fading and damage to the leaves throughout.

A detailed catalogue description is provided by O'Grady and Flower, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts, II, pp. 505-19.

Contents:

ff. 1r-2v: A table of contents by James Hardiman. He mentions a legal text which has been lost and a later pencil note states that this text was missing as early as 1849.

f. 3r-v: Transcript of ff. 4r-5v on paper by a modern hand.

f 4r: Note on the distance between celestial bodies attributed to a Rabi Moises (Moses Maimonides?); note on substance, referring to Aristotle's predicamenta; note on the physiology of emotions with a quotation from Book V of Bernard de Gordon's Lilium Medicinae appended.

f. 4v: A series of medical notes on the humours, temperatures and urine; a series of arabic numberals followed by text (both very faded); Mnemonic verses beginning 'Ultima .g. iani cum prima .g. geque secunda ...' with an explanation.

f. 5r: Table for finding the date of Easter with a spinning disc.

f. 5v: Table on the properties of the soul.

f. 6r: A fragment of Aided Finn; 'Seacht n-urgartha righ Tem[rach]'; Fragment of a text about the seven prohibitions and seven rights of kings of Tara and the five prohibitions of kings of Leinster from Lebor na gCert; Note on the portions of food given to different orders in the banqueting hall of Tara; fragment of Tecosca Cormaic, seems to begin with the line 'Ni bad rechtaire duit fer co ceilb'.

f. 6v: 'Tuc dam a Dé moire' including quatrains invoking God, Mary and Irish saints; passage from the litanry in Additional MS 30512, f. 36. Begins here 'Is truagh iarum ocus is garbh an traethagh'.

f. 7r-v: Two poems on tributes due to St Molaga of Fermoy, beginning 'Dligid fir...' and '[T]áinic Molaca d'Ath Cliath cethach'.

ff. 7v-8r: 'Fearann mac Miledh Mumha', poem on the successive kings of Munster from Aengus Ua hOilella to Conchobor mac Diarmata Uí Bhriain.

ff. 8r-v: 'Trí tighi dana lan Éiri uili', poem on the three cheif residences of Ireland (Tara, Cashel and Rath Croghan) in the ninth century.

f. 8v: Two poems concerning Mog Ruith, beginning '[Dli]gidh eascob Cairpre d'Feraib Maighe' and 'Se fichit bliadan nír tim'.

f. 9r: 'Dá madh misi budh rígh réill', advice for a king.

f. 9v: Poem in which Mog Ruith foretells Dathal Tuathchaoch's victory over Uí Fidgente invaders form Limerick. Headed 'Boile Mogha ruit ro sís' and beings '[?] baethair truagh don daimh'.

f. 10r: 'Abair rum a lonain luind', verse dialogue between Énaccán and a lackbird which saw the births of Christ and various figures from Irish history.

ff. 10r-v: Poem in praise of Cathal mac Finguine, declaring him above the other kings of Ireland. Text has been lost due to damage to the page.

f. 10v: 'A mhic Bhriain as caemh do chucht', poem addressed to a certain son of Brian; 'Is a nomhadh uathaidh tind', poem on the days of the month on which invasion of Ireland took place; Excerpt from Tecosca Cormaic beginning here 'Athair ime gaeth'; prognostications from the weather beginning 'Madh gaeth mhor a medon aidhche'.

f. 11r: Another passage from the litany in Additional MS 30512, begins here 'Ar h'eis[irge]'. 'Cidh as dech do cleirchibh', note on the qualities proper to clerics. Much text lost due to damage to the top of the page.

ff. 11r-v: Extracts from Aided Diarmada meic Cerbaill.

f. 11v: List of the Twelve Apostles, note on the Evangelists, a note on the three sons of Jospeh.

Blank paper leaf between ff. 11 and 12.

ff. 12r-v: Homily on Paphnutius and Onophrius. Text is faded by the all margins and sides of the page are damaged. A colophon gives the date 1453.

ff. 12v-13r: Betha Cranatan (Life of St Cranat of Fermoy).

ff. 13v-14v: 'Ina dha triuchaibh robi an tir sin sul tugad hi do Mog Ruith', topographical account of the two Fermoys.

f. 14v: 'Aillill olom amra an gein', poem on the descent of the kings of Munster from Ailill Ólomm.

ff. 14v-15r: 'Mo beannachtsa is beannacht Patraic', poem in which St Molaga blesses Fermoy.

f. 15r-16r: Part of an Irish version of Chronicle of the Pseudo-Turpin. From the beginning to his encounter with Agiolandus (here Aiolandus).

f. 16r: Tale in which Colmán Ela feeds two youths with the best food because one of them is damned to hell and the other will be austere in his old age; extracts on the austerities observed by Colum Cille before his death.

ff. 16r-v: Extracts on St Ciaran of Saigir.

f. 16v: Tale of a student who acquires wealth with the gift of prophecy given to him by the Devil, and is saved by praying at the altar of Clonmacnoise; note on three battles fought by Colum Cille.

ff. 16v-17r: Text in which two otherworldly women, Inmale and Inecen, come from Scotland and/or Glastonbury and begin mutilating the men of Tara for seven years until Cormac mac Airt refuses to worship them.

f. 17r: Story of a loaf of bread which burst in the oven as the sign of the cross had not been made over it (badly faded); text on the canonical hours, beginning 'Cid ara ndentur ceileabrad isna trathaibh seo seoch na trathaib ele'; note on saints' names; extract from Roscada Flainn Fína maic Ossu ríg Saxan naming different groups in the south of Ireland; sections from Tecosca Cormaic on the seventeen signs of bad pleading and how to behave among certain groups (begins 'Is áil dom co fhessair'; a triad beginning 'Trí muid na hirnaidhte'; tale in which Maol Póil, abbot of Cell Cecáin, is appraoched in a dream by a dead nun who requests that he chants the Beati for her; a note on the ages of the world.

ff. 17r-v: The rules and customs of Oc-Sincell's school at Cell Ached (Killeigh, Offaly).

f. 17v: Note on different saints with the name Colmán; the tale of Guaire Aidne, Cummíne Fota and Caimíne of Inis Celtra; Echtra Ambacuc, tale of a man whose head fell off after falsely swearing by St Ciarán's hand; Story of St Brendan chaging Coirell's preborn child from a girl to a boy after her husband's, Tuathal mac Eogain, death at the hands of the Lochlannaigh.

Unfoliated paper leaf between ff. 17 and 18.

ff. 18r-23v: Sections from Togail Bruidne Dá Derga (corresponding to Knott's edition ll. 1-482 (f. 18r-20v), ll. 947-1044 (ff. 21r-v), ll. 684-946(f. 22r-23v). The pages should run f. 22, f. 23, f. 21.

Unfoliated paper leaf between ff. 21 and 22, and ff. 23 and 24.

ff. 24r-25v: Fragment of Tochmarc Eimire (Corresponds with §§46-72 of Meyer's edition in ZCP 3).

Unfoliated paper leaf between ff. 25 and 26.

f. 26r: Tale of Solomon, David and the beggar (a very different account from the Book of Fermoy).

f. 26r-v: Tale of Solomon's impatience at David's slowness in passing judgment.

f. 26v-27r: Story of how Coirpre Crom, bishop of Clonmacnoise, freed Mael Seachnaill's soul from Hell.

ff. 27r-v: Tale of a woman who tempts a cleric.

f. 27v: Story in which a monk instructs a woman whom tried to seduce him that shame before God is more important than shame before men.

ff. 27v-29r: A series of wonders/miracles: Precious stone with the image of a man carrying a ten-stringed harp, with five women on his left and four on his right (ff. 27v-28r); Well 'Sacer' in Illyria which quenches candles on the left and lights them on the right (f. 28r); Why God made water so nice to drink (f. 28r); Builders who look for pearls by lowering stones into the sea (f. 28r) ; a maiden, sometimes light, sometimes dark appears to Agonius, a druid in Arabia (f. 28r); beautiful woman of noble descent (ff. 28r); ingot found in Etruria which will suffer no gold above it (f. 28v); white blackbirds in Achaia which keep the canonical hours (f. 28v); rectangular, golden ingot which appeared in Arabia at the birth of Christ (f. 28v); tree with one root above ground and lots below (f. 28v); a well in the East which overflows at the osund of music (f. 28v); city with magnificent doors (ff. 28v-29r); unicorn caught by a virgin (f. 29r); a tree, 'perennig' in India in which doves hide from serpents (f. 28v).

f. 29r-v: Ending sections of Scúap chrábaid (§§34-37 of Meyer's edition).

f. 29v: Tale of a seer in Connaught visited by an otherworldly man anwering the request of his foster-mother as to how she might get to Heaven through recommending charity and repentance; story of how demons gave descriptions of the communities of Iona, Armagh, Bangor and Clonmacnoise to St Cainneach; objects of the fasts in spring, summer and winter.

ff. 29v-30r: Story about a demon with a small book containing sins of clerics which are erased after confession and a big book containing the unconfessed sins of the laity.

f. 30r: The Story of Coirpre Crom and St Ciarán.

ff. 30r-v: Tale of a monk who came from the east to match the piety of Comgall of Bangor.

f. 30v: Tale in which Colmán Ela feeds two youths with the best food because one of them is damned to hell and the other will be austere in his old age; story of Solomon's vision of wolves sucking cows to leanness and then licking them until only bones are left; the story of St Patrick and Lugaid mac Lóegairi.

Unfoliated paper leaf between ff. 30 and 31.

f. 31r: Prose version of parts of Saltair na Rann concerning Creation.

ff. 31r-v: Story of how Greeks besieged the Hebrews and promised to leave if given the Hebrew chiefs as hostags.

ff. 31v-32r: Scél na Samhna.

f. 32r: Short text on the causes of poverty.

f. 32v: 'Imthus Aine indis dam', poem on Cnoc Aine.

Decoration:

A figure in the disc pointing with one arm, only the head and right arm are drawn (f. 5r). Aighe written in the first of a series of gradually smaller rectangles at the bottom of the page (f.10r). Initials with minor decoration (ff. 26-30). Letters and line fillers highlighted in red (ff. 4r-v). Large initials throughout.