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Coisecrad eclaisi ‘The consecration of a church’
verse beg. Líne andso dorigensat h-écnaide eolcha

  • Middle Irish
  • prose
Middle Irish tract on the consecration of a church.
First words (verse)
  • Líne andso dorigensat h-écnaide eolcha
Manuscripts
pp. 277a.m–278a.i
rubric: ‘Incipit Coisecrad Eclaisi indso’
beg. ‘Líne andso dorigensat hecnaide eolcha’
Language
  • Middle Irish
  • Stokes: “the composition of the tractate may safely be placed in the eleventh, when Old-Irish was passing into Early-Middle-Irish”.
Form
prose (primary)
Textual relationships
Reference is made to the Liber episcopi or ‘Bishop’s book’ (isin libuir epscuip; ut dicitur in Libro Episcopi), but no textual source of that description was known to Stokes.

Subjects

seven grades of the churchyet to be classified, numerical motifs, legal motifs and themes
seven grades of the church
id. 25987

i.e. sevenfold division of the grades of the church, a concept current in early Irish law by analogy with the seven grades of the laity

Keywords

Church buildingsChurch buildings
...

ConsecrationConsecration
...

Sources

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.] [tr.] Stokes, Whitley, “The Lebar Brecc tractate on the consecration of a church”, in: Miscellanea linguistica in onore di Graziadio Ascoli, Turin, 1901. 363–387.
Internet Archive: <link>
[ed.] [tr.] Olden, Thomas, “On an early Irish tract in the Leabhar Breac, describing the mode of consecrating a church”, Transactions of the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society 4 (1897–1898): 98–104, 177–180.

Secondary sources (select)

Ó Carragáin, Tomás, Churches in early medieval Ireland: architecture, ritual and memory, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Series, London, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. xvi + 392 pp + 298 ill..  

Contents: Introduction -- Opus Scoticum : churches of timber, turf and wattle -- Drystone churches and regional identity in Corcu Duibne -- Relics and romanitas : mortared stone churches before 900 -- Pre-Romanesque churches of mortared stone, 900-1130 : form, chronology, patronage -- Architecture and memory -- Architecture and ritual -- Sacred cities and pastoral centres after 900 -- Architecture and politics : Dublin and Glendalough around 1100 -- Relics and recluses : double-vaulted churches around 1100 -- Epilogue -- Appendix. Descriptive list of Irish pre-romanesque churches.

39–40
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
November 2021, last updated: February 2024