Bibliography
Damian Bracken
s. xx–xxi
Bracken
Works authored
Bracken, Damian, and Eric Graff, The Schaffhausen Adomnán, 2 vols, Cork: Cork University Press, 2008–2014.
abstract:
This is the first in a series of facsimiles of major Irish historical manuscripts. Each will be published with an interpretive commentary. This first book reproduces the earliest surviving copy of Adomnán's Vita Columbae, the Life of St Columba, dating from the late seventh century. Columba established one of the greatest Irish monastic and cultural foundations of the Middle Ages on the Island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, in the 560s.
The monastery of Iona had close associations with the kings of the northern part of Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. It was the spiritual centre responsible for the conversion of Scotland and northern England to Christianity, and was the mother house of a great monastic federation that stretched from Lindisfarne, in the east of England, to Durrow, in the heart of Ireland. The Life was written by Adomnán, the ninth abbot of Iona, before 697, to mark the centenary of his patron's death. Like Columba, he was a member of the powerful Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty.
Adomnán's Life of St Columba has been described as perhaps the most sophisticated saint's life to be written in western Europe in the course of the seventh century. It bears witness to the scholarly and spiritual attainments of early Irish Christian culture. The manuscript reprinted in facsimile is one of the foremost achievements of that learned culture and has been preserved in the Stadtbibliothek, Schaffhausen, Switzerland since the eighteenth century.
Introduction-Damian Bracken; Report on the Codex: Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1-Eric Graff; Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1: The history of the manuscript-Jean-Michel Picard; The Schaffhausen manuscript and the composition of the Life of Columba-Mark Stansbury; Some orthographic features of the Schaffhausen manuscript- Anthony Harvey; A note on the Irish manuscripts Commission and the Schaffhausen manuscript of Adomnán's Vita Columbae- Deirdre McMahon; Index.
The monastery of Iona had close associations with the kings of the northern part of Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. It was the spiritual centre responsible for the conversion of Scotland and northern England to Christianity, and was the mother house of a great monastic federation that stretched from Lindisfarne, in the east of England, to Durrow, in the heart of Ireland. The Life was written by Adomnán, the ninth abbot of Iona, before 697, to mark the centenary of his patron's death. Like Columba, he was a member of the powerful Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty.
Adomnán's Life of St Columba has been described as perhaps the most sophisticated saint's life to be written in western Europe in the course of the seventh century. It bears witness to the scholarly and spiritual attainments of early Irish Christian culture. The manuscript reprinted in facsimile is one of the foremost achievements of that learned culture and has been preserved in the Stadtbibliothek, Schaffhausen, Switzerland since the eighteenth century.
Introduction-Damian Bracken; Report on the Codex: Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1-Eric Graff; Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1: The history of the manuscript-Jean-Michel Picard; The Schaffhausen manuscript and the composition of the Life of Columba-Mark Stansbury; Some orthographic features of the Schaffhausen manuscript- Anthony Harvey; A note on the Irish manuscripts Commission and the Schaffhausen manuscript of Adomnán's Vita Columbae- Deirdre McMahon; Index.
abstract:
This is the first in a series of facsimiles of major Irish historical manuscripts. Each will be published with an interpretive commentary. This first book reproduces the earliest surviving copy of Adomnán's Vita Columbae, the Life of St Columba, dating from the late seventh century. Columba established one of the greatest Irish monastic and cultural foundations of the Middle Ages on the Island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, in the 560s.
The monastery of Iona had close associations with the kings of the northern part of Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. It was the spiritual centre responsible for the conversion of Scotland and northern England to Christianity, and was the mother house of a great monastic federation that stretched from Lindisfarne, in the east of England, to Durrow, in the heart of Ireland. The Life was written by Adomnán, the ninth abbot of Iona, before 697, to mark the centenary of his patron's death. Like Columba, he was a member of the powerful Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty.
Adomnán's Life of St Columba has been described as perhaps the most sophisticated saint's life to be written in western Europe in the course of the seventh century. It bears witness to the scholarly and spiritual attainments of early Irish Christian culture. The manuscript reprinted in facsimile is one of the foremost achievements of that learned culture and has been preserved in the Stadtbibliothek, Schaffhausen, Switzerland since the eighteenth century.
Introduction-Damian Bracken; Report on the Codex: Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1-Eric Graff; Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1: The history of the manuscript-Jean-Michel Picard; The Schaffhausen manuscript and the composition of the Life of Columba-Mark Stansbury; Some orthographic features of the Schaffhausen manuscript- Anthony Harvey; A note on the Irish manuscripts Commission and the Schaffhausen manuscript of Adomnán's Vita Columbae- Deirdre McMahon; Index.
The monastery of Iona had close associations with the kings of the northern part of Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. It was the spiritual centre responsible for the conversion of Scotland and northern England to Christianity, and was the mother house of a great monastic federation that stretched from Lindisfarne, in the east of England, to Durrow, in the heart of Ireland. The Life was written by Adomnán, the ninth abbot of Iona, before 697, to mark the centenary of his patron's death. Like Columba, he was a member of the powerful Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty.
Adomnán's Life of St Columba has been described as perhaps the most sophisticated saint's life to be written in western Europe in the course of the seventh century. It bears witness to the scholarly and spiritual attainments of early Irish Christian culture. The manuscript reprinted in facsimile is one of the foremost achievements of that learned culture and has been preserved in the Stadtbibliothek, Schaffhausen, Switzerland since the eighteenth century.
Introduction-Damian Bracken; Report on the Codex: Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1-Eric Graff; Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1: The history of the manuscript-Jean-Michel Picard; The Schaffhausen manuscript and the composition of the Life of Columba-Mark Stansbury; Some orthographic features of the Schaffhausen manuscript- Anthony Harvey; A note on the Irish manuscripts Commission and the Schaffhausen manuscript of Adomnán's Vita Columbae- Deirdre McMahon; Index.
Works edited
Contributions to journals
Bracken, Damian, “Virgil the Grammarian and Bede: a preliminary study”, Anglo-Saxon England 35 (2006): 7–21.
abstract:
The chapters in Bede's De temporum ratione begin with an etymology for the name of the subject to be examined. Sources and analogues for some have not hitherto been identified. This article shows that some of these etymologies of words for the divisions of time come ultimately, though perhaps not directly, from bk XI of Virgil the Grammarian's Epitomae. These accounts of the origins of calendrical and cosmological terms wound their way through early western computistical works and eventually into Bede's De temporum ratione. The article identifies examples of Virgil's influence on anonymous early medieval biblical commentaries and discusses their significance as pointers towards their place of composition.
abstract:
The chapters in Bede's De temporum ratione begin with an etymology for the name of the subject to be examined. Sources and analogues for some have not hitherto been identified. This article shows that some of these etymologies of words for the divisions of time come ultimately, though perhaps not directly, from bk XI of Virgil the Grammarian's Epitomae. These accounts of the origins of calendrical and cosmological terms wound their way through early western computistical works and eventually into Bede's De temporum ratione. The article identifies examples of Virgil's influence on anonymous early medieval biblical commentaries and discusses their significance as pointers towards their place of composition.
Bracken, Damian, “Rationalism and the Bible in seventh-century Ireland”, Chronicon 2 (1998): 1–37.
abstract:
An Irish writer of the mid-seventh century, Augustinus Hibernicus, tried to explain the unusual events of the Bible in rationalist way. His rationalism is not as unusual as some believe because he was applying arguments developed by patristic writers. He had, however, a certain independence of mind, especially in his avoidance of some of Augustine's ideas. Augustine's use of the theory of the rationes seminales has not influenced him. This is not because he was ignorant of the idea, but because it conflicted with his more consistent conception of creation and miracles.
Chronicon: <link>
abstract:
An Irish writer of the mid-seventh century, Augustinus Hibernicus, tried to explain the unusual events of the Bible in rationalist way. His rationalism is not as unusual as some believe because he was applying arguments developed by patristic writers. He had, however, a certain independence of mind, especially in his avoidance of some of Augustine's ideas. Augustine's use of the theory of the rationes seminales has not influenced him. This is not because he was ignorant of the idea, but because it conflicted with his more consistent conception of creation and miracles.
Bracken, Damian, “Latin passages in Irish vernacular law: notes on sources”, Peritia 9 (1995): 187–196.
abstract:
Latin sentences and phrases are found in the early Irish vernacular Laws (ranging from Old-Irish commentaries to later gloss and commentary). Some sentences have parallels in the Hibernensis, itself related to earlier Hiberno-Latin florilegia. At times, the evidence suggests that the vernacular legists are drawing directly on Hiberno-Latin literature rather than the Hibernensis. These and other collections of aphorisms were, therefore, important for the early Irish canonists and of continued interest to the legists who wrote the vernacular Laws and commentaries.
abstract:
Latin sentences and phrases are found in the early Irish vernacular Laws (ranging from Old-Irish commentaries to later gloss and commentary). Some sentences have parallels in the Hibernensis, itself related to earlier Hiberno-Latin florilegia. At times, the evidence suggests that the vernacular legists are drawing directly on Hiberno-Latin literature rather than the Hibernensis. These and other collections of aphorisms were, therefore, important for the early Irish canonists and of continued interest to the legists who wrote the vernacular Laws and commentaries.
Bracken, Damian, “Immortality and capital punishment: patristic concepts in Irish law”, Peritia 9 (1995): 167–186.
abstract:
An early legal poem is the centre-piece in the pseudo-historical introduction to the Senchas Már. It is the work of a cleric and is described as a skilful justification of capital punishment in a christian context. The poet uses the complex theology of the Fall and Redemption in a creative way and his work can only be interpreted in the context of Hiberno-Latin and patristic literature. The poem is not symptomatic of christian influence on the Laws in a merely unfocused sense. Rather it is the product of the same ecclesiastical milieux that produced Hiberno-Latin literature itself.
abstract:
An early legal poem is the centre-piece in the pseudo-historical introduction to the Senchas Már. It is the work of a cleric and is described as a skilful justification of capital punishment in a christian context. The poet uses the complex theology of the Fall and Redemption in a creative way and his work can only be interpreted in the context of Hiberno-Latin and patristic literature. The poem is not symptomatic of christian influence on the Laws in a merely unfocused sense. Rather it is the product of the same ecclesiastical milieux that produced Hiberno-Latin literature itself.
Contributions to edited collections or authored works
Bracken, Damian, “‘Whence the splendour of such light came to us’: the account of Ireland in Ermenrich’s Life of St Gall”, in: Elizabeth Mullins, and Diarmuid Scully (eds), Listen, o Isles, unto me: studies in medieval word and image in honour of Jennifer O'Reilly, Cork: Cork University Press, 2011. 73–86.
Bracken, Damian, “[Multiple contributions]”, Oxford dictionary of national biography, Online: Oxford University Press, 2004–. URL: <http://www.oxforddnb.com>.
In reference works
Oxford dictionary of national biography, Online: Oxford University Press, 2004–present. URL: <http://www.oxforddnb.com>.
comments: General editors include Lawrence Goldman, et al.
Contributions: Mac Briain, Donnchad [Donough O'Brien]
