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Bretha comaithchesa ‘Judgements of neighbourhood’

  • Old Irish
  • prose
  • Early Irish law texts
“deals mainly with tresspass by domestic animals”.(1)n. 1 Fergus Kelly, A guide to early Irish law (1988): 273.
Context(s)The (textual) context(s) to which the present text belongs or in which it is cited in part or in whole.
Manuscripts
Main copies
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 487 3, ff. 53–67 [s. xv]
ff. 64ra.29–67ra.33
End missing.
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1433 (E 3. 5) [s. xvi]
Beginning missing.
Smaller fragments
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337 13, pp. 353–398
Fragments with Old Irish glosses.
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1336 1, cols 1-350
Extracts, with glosses and commentary of later date.
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337 volume 2 (pp. 1-14) [s. xvi]
Passages from the text, with Old Irish commentary.
Language
  • Old Irish
Form
prose (primary)

Classification

Early Irish law textsEarly Irish law texts
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Keywords

early Irish law⟨law by societal context⟩
early Irish law
id. 26052

The full body of regulations, practices, principles and legal ideas current in ‘native’ Irish law, from its first recorded instances onwards.

Sources

Notes

{
1.
Fergus Kelly, A guide to early Irish law (1988): 273.

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] Charles-Edwards, T. M., Bretha comaithcheso, Early Irish Law Series, 9, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies, 2022.  
abstract:

Bretha Comaithcheso, “Judgements on Neighbourhood”, is a tract forming part of the great law-book, Senchas Már, dating from c. 700. It expounds the law governing relations between neighbouring farmers, especially those who formed by contract a co-operative group. Already in the pre-Viking period it was attracting layers of comment, both glosses and a dossier of more extended texts that amplify or update or even contradict the main text. The result is a collection of material outstandingly rich among European texts on farming of a similar date.

[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 1, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
comments: numbered pp. 1–337; diplomatic edition of legal material three manuscripts: the Bodleian manuscripts Rawlinson B 487 and Rawlinson B 506, and TCD 1433 (E 3. 5).
64.6–79.12 Text from Rawlinson B 487.
[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 1, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
comments: numbered pp. 1–337; diplomatic edition of legal material three manuscripts: the Bodleian manuscripts Rawlinson B 487 and Rawlinson B 506, and TCD 1433 (E 3. 5).
191.1–205.21 Text from TCD 1433
[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 3, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
comments: numbered pp. 745–1138; diplomatic edition of legal material from Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337 (continued, pp. 745–1109); Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1317 (pp. 1111–1138)
906.39–907.35 Fragments from TCD 1337 (13)
[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 5, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
Volume 5 of the Corpus iuris Hibernici, which is numbered pp. 1532–1925, contains diplomatic editions of legal material from TCD 1363 (H 4. 22), the Book of Ballymote (RIA 23 P 12), BL Egerton 90 and TCD 1336 (H 3. 17).
1854.37–1858.36 Extracts from TCD 1336 (1)
[ed.] [tr.] Hancock, W. Neilson, Thaddeus OʼMahony, Alexander George Richey, and Robert Atkinson [ed. and tr.], Ancient laws of Ireland, 6 vols, vol. 4: Din Techtugad and certain other selected Brehon law tracts, Stationery Office: Dublin, 1879.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>, <link>, <link>
69–159

Secondary sources (select)

Breatnach, Liam, A companion to the Corpus iuris Hibernici, Early Irish Law Series, 5, Dublin: DIAS, 2005.  

A companion to D. A. Binchy, CIH (1978). Review article: Neil McLeod, ‘Review,A true companion to the Corpus iuris Hibernici’, Peritia 19 (2005).

292
Kelly, Fergus, A guide to early Irish law, Early Irish Law Series, 3, Dublin: DIAS, 1988.
273 [‘Appendix 1, no. 41’]
Kelly, Fergus, “The Old Irish tree-list”, Celtica 11 (1976): 107–124.
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
October 2010, last updated: July 2023
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