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Harley MS 432

Record Id:

040-002046260

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046260

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000391

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 432

Title:

An Senchas Már

Scope & Content:

A detailed description of this manuscript is provided by O'Grady and Flower, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts, i, pp. 146-47.

Contents:

f. 1*r: A paper leaf, containing brief and inaccurate notes on the manuscript's presumed age, and the titles of other Irish manuscripts in the Harley collection.

ff. 1r-2v: Pseudo-historical prologue to the Senchas Már. Includes a question schema, giving the place and time of composition, the name of the author, and their reason for writing it (f. 1r).

ff. 3r-4r: Introduction to the Senchas Már. A list of tales is found on f. 3v, colophon b, ll. 17-33.

ff. 4r-21v: Di .iiii.slicht Athgabála ('The Four Divisions of Restraint').

f. 10*: A parchment scrap with some writing on the verso.

Marginal notes in ogham on ff. 4r and 14r.

Decoration:

Initials with minor decoration in black. Letters highlighted in yellow (ff. 11r-17r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046260", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 432: An Senchas Már" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046260

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 432 : An Senchas Már

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0431]/040-002046260

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Irish

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1573

End Date:

1583

Date Range:

c. 1578

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 340 x 240 (written area: 255 x 180-210mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 20 + 10* (+ 4 paper flyleaves at the beginning + 5 at the end).

Script: Irish.

Binding: British Museum in-house; brown leather tooled, in gold with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the upper and lower covers; marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Ireland. A marginal note on f. 20v gives the place of composition as Aninsi art Labadrais, possibly Inch Saint Lawrence in Co. Limerick.

Written by Gilla na Naem Ó Deoráin, whose name is inscribed in ogham in the upper margin of f. 14r. The manuscript was written c. 1578 if the Seaghan mac Fhlannchadha, whose death is mentioned in a marginal note on f. 19v, can be identified as Sean mac Domnhaill, mic Tomais, mic Taidhcc Mécc Flannchadha, whose year of death is noted in the Annals of the Four Masters.

Provenance:

Edward O'Reilly (b. 1765, d. 1830): signed his name after a note speculating on the date of the manuscript on an unfoliated flyleaf (f. [v]).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Standish Hayes O'Grady (vol. I) and Robin Flower (vol. II), 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1926; repr. 1992), ii, 470-505.

Corpus Iuris Hibernici, ed. by D. A. Binchy, 7 vols (Dublin: Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, 1978), ii, 339-422.

Fletcher, Alan J., Drama and the Performing Arts in Pre-Cromwellian Ireland: Sources and Documents from the Earliest Times Until c. 1642 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2001), pp. 68-69.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)