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Harley MS 5280
- Record Id:
- 040-002051125
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002051125
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000320
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100123802477.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 5280
- Title:
-
Collection of Irish historical, mythological and religious texts
- Scope & Content:
-
A collection of Irish texts from the Ulster, Finn and mythological cycles. Also some religious and glossarial material.
A detailed catalogue description is provided in O'Grady and Flower, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts, II, pp. 298-323.
Contents:
ff. 1-10 are later inserted paper leaves.
ff. 1r-2v: An English account of the manuscript, identifying 22 chapters.
ff. 3r–4r: A Latin account of the early inhabitants of Ireland.
f. 5r: A Latin account of Fintan mac Bóchra's descendants.
ff. 6r-8v: A Latin adaptation of Aided Clainne Tuirenn. Ends fragmentarily at the battle between Lugh and the Danes (who take the place of the Fomorians).
f. 9r-v: The conclusion of a religious tract in Latin.
f. 10r-v: A Gaelic text. Addressed to Henry Spelman on the verso.
ff. 11, 78: Parchment flyleaves.
ff. 12r–20v: Immram curaig Mail Dúin. Incomplete.
One unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 20.
ff. 21r–24v: Old Irish treatise on the Psalter.
f. 24v: Four quatrains on disqualifying properties.
f. 25r-v: Mec Teline di feruib Mumon cenn imubaghau hErind.
f. 25v: Scéla Guairi meic Colmáin ocus Óenu moccu Loígse.
ff. 25v-26r: The song of Créde, daughter of Guaire.
f. 26r–v: Comrac Líadaine ocus Cuirithir.
f. 26v: Scéla Siluester ocus Constantin.
ff. 27r–35r: Tochmarc Emire (Thurneysen's Recension III). Including Verba Scáthaige on f. 34r.
ff. 35r–v: Úath Beinne Étair.
f. 35v: The quarrel between Finn and Oisín. Poems in Irish; four quatrains on foods that are proper for Beltaine, Lugnasad, Samain and Imbolg, two quatrains on the similarities of national characteristics; two quatrains on tears of repentance.
ff. 36r–38r: Epistil Ísu.
f. 38r: Three examples of supernatural punishment for Sunday transgressions.
ff. 38r-39r: Cáin Domnaig.
ff. 39v–41r: Apgitir chrábaid.
f. 41v: In mac ndíaid a athar a nArd Mauchai.
ff. 41v-42r: Fursa Cráiptech profectauit.
f. 42r: 'A maccain na sruith'. Poem addressed to the bearer of St Adamnan's reliquary and giving a list of the relics therein.
f. 42r: Scéla Cormaic meic Cuilennáin ocus fernóice Inse Celtra.
f. 42v: 'A marbáin, a díthrubaig'.
ff. 43r-44v: Immram Brain Meic Febail.
f. 44v: Ces Ulad and a note on the causes of the battle of Cúil Dreimne and the airbre druad.
f. 45r: A poem on Aed Sláine's killing of Suibne mac Colmáin and the resulting feud. Quatrains 11 and 12 of the poem 'A gilla, glac do leabhar'. Note on the qualities proper to clerics.
f. 45v: Inscription and a note in Latin.
ff. 46r-48r: Baile Bricín.
f. 48r-v: Baile Binnberlach mac Buain.
f. 48v: Tocmarc Baise bandruad.Táin Bó Ruanaid.
f. 49r: Áirem muintire Finn (incomplete).
f. 49v: Se bruidni Érenn, gan dáil. A poem on the killing of the three Aeds by Aedh Gustán. Quatrain of repentance at the approach of death,
ff. 50r-v, 52r-53r: Scéla Mucce meic Da Thó.
f. 51r-v: A note on the compensation given by Niall Naoigiallach to his son Fiacha and a poem on the same.
ff. 53v-54r: Noínden Ulad.
f. 54r: Notes on the chronological relationship of Conaire Mór to various events of the Ulster Cycle.
ff. 54v-57v: Talland Étair.
f. 57v: Short biographical and lexicographical notes.
ff. 58r-63r: Airce menman Uraird maic Coisse (includes B version of medieval Irish tales list).
ff. 63r-70v: Cath Maige Tuired.
ff. 71r-72v: Baile in Scáil.
f. 73r: blank.
f. 73v: Fragmentary opening of a text on Diarmaid mac Fergusa Cerrbeoil looking for a cure for his headache.
f. 74r: Forfess Fer Fálgae; Poem on the precedence of the kings at Tara; Poem on the characteristics of the house of Oengus Mac ind Ócc (i.e. Brug na Bóinne).
f. 74v: Immathchor nAilella ocus Airt.
ff. 75r-76v: Entries on prull and mugeme from Cormac's Glossary. A poem on the same subject written in the margins of f. 76r.
ff. 76v-77r: Echtrae Connlai.
ff. 77r-v: Aígidecht Aithirni.
f. 77v: A verse beginning 'Aithirne Áilgessach mac Ferchertnae'.
f. 78r: Short notes in Irish, English and Latin.
Marginal entries are found throughout the manuscript, often in unusual shapes.
f. 12r: A quatrain on the characteristics of the different provinces of Ireland.
f. 12v: A note telling how Niall Frossach, Aed Find and Bruind mac Bruide spoke from their graves to two monks of Iona.
f. 22r: A quatrain on Hell.
f. 24r: Four quatrains interwoven into a strange pattern. On disqualifying properties; on the location of Arron and Moses's death; on secrecy; on a wicked woman.
f. 27r: A glossarial note forming a three-sided border.
f. 41r: A note on Methuselah and Enoch.
f. 46v: A glossed quatrain on the discomfort caused to monks by the cold wind from Guaire Mucais. On the lower part of the page several quatrains are written in and out of each other in an interweaving pattern; on the value of education; on the inevitability of death; on slander; on peace to God and enmity to the devil; a poor man's lament.
f. 47r: On Christ positioned with his face to the west on the Cross; note on sons of Adam, Caidin who made the first mill and Camen who committed the first theft; against indulgence in monks.
f. 48r: On the uselessness of medicines; on the death of John the Baptist.
f. 56v: A fragment of a text in which the Devil tries to convince Colum Cille that his community has failed in observing the canonical hours.
f. 57r: A quatrain on a well which shone every night.
Decorations:
Zoomorphic initials (ff. 12r, 27r, 59r). Three-sided border composed of text (ff. 27r, 76r). Initial highlighted in red (ff. 59r). Initials in black throughout some with minor decoration.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002051125", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5280: Collection of Irish historical, mythological and religious texts" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002051125 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 5280 : Collection of Irish historical, mythological and religious texts - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[5281]/040-002051125
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100123802477.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Irish
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1500
- End Date:
- 1540
- Date Range:
- Early 16th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 245 × 165 mm (written area: 180 × 120 mm).
Foliation: ff. 78 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 20 + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); ff. 1*–8* should be foliated 1–8; f. 9 follows after this sequence.
Script: Gaelic.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Red leather, tooled in gold, with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Ireland.
Provenance:
Written by multiple scribes: Gilla riabach mac Tuathail meic Taidc caim I Clerich (ff. 46r, 76r).
A pen-trial in the 16th-century hand of a 'Maolmuire Ó Clerig' (f. 11v). Other hands appear at ff. 18v-20v; f. 45r, ll. 33.
Hugo Casserly (or Casserlye): inscribed in the early 17th century, 'Hugo Caserlye hiberniensis homo' (f. 45v), and his endorsement of a document addressed to Spelman (f. 10). His name is given as 'Cassairle' elsewhere in the manuscript (ff. 77r).
Sir Henry Spelman (b. 1563/4, d. 1641), historian and antiquary: inscribed, 'Henrici Spelman' (f. 12r), and document addressed to him (f. 10). On this manuscript, its owners, and Spelman's relations with Ireland, see Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts, ii, 300.
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.
- Information About Copies:
-
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Breatnach, Risteard Breasalach, 'Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann, a sixteenth century Latin fragment', Eigse, 1 (1939), 249-57.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5280.
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), ii, 298-323.
Gray, Elizabeth A., ‘Hiberno-Latin tracts in Harleian 5280’, Journal of Celtic Studies, 3 (1981–82), 136–164.
Meyer, Kuno, ‘Mitteilungen aus irischen Handschriften: IV. Aus Harleian 5280’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 3 (1901), 226-63, 447-66.
Ó Concheanainn, Tomás, 'A Connacht Medieval Literary Heritage: Texts Derived from Cin Dromma Snechtai through Leabhar na hUidhre', Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 16, (1988), 1-40.
O'Sullivan, William, 'The Manuscript Collection of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh', in Studies in Early and Medieval Irish Archaeology, History and Literature, in Honour of Francis J. Byrne, ed. by Alfred P. Smyth (Dublin: Four Courts, 2000), pp. 439-47.
Wright, Cyril Ernest, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 97, 310.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)