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Cork, University College, Book of Lismore Book of Lismore (Leabhar Leasa Móir)

  • Irish, Latin
  • s. xv
  • Irish manuscripts
  • vellum
Identifiers
Location
Formerly in private hands at Chatsworth (Derbyshire).
Title
Book of Lismore (Leabhar Leasa Móir)

Book of Lismore, also the Book of Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach (Leabhar Mhic Cárthaigh Riabhaigh). 

Type
manuscript miscellanies
Provenance and related aspects
Language
Irish, Latin
Date
s. xv
15th century.
Origin, provenance
Origin: Ireland
Ireland
No short description available
See more ass. with Caitlín [daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald]
Caitlín ... daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald
(d. 1506)
daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald (d. 1468), eighth earl of Desmond, and wife of Fínghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach (d. 1505). She and her husband were credited as patrons of the Book of Lismore.
See more Mac Carthaigh Riabhach (Fínghin)
Mac Carthaigh Riabhach (Fínghin)
(d. 1505)
Fínghin (Fínghin; Fínghean) Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach of Cairbre, head of the Cairbre branch of the Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach family; patron who commissioned the compilation of the Book of Lismore
See more Mac Carthaigh Riabhach familyMac Carthaigh Riabhach family
Entry reserved for but not yet available from the subject index.
See more Patrons appear to include Fínghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach of Cairbre (Co. Cork) and his wife Caitlín, daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald, earl of Desmond. This is suggested by two explicit references to the Mac Carthaigh:
  • On f. 134rb, the second main scribe Aonghus Ó Callanáin explicitly states that he writes for Mhág Carthaig .i. Finghean mac Diarmada.
  • On f. 158, the third scribe adds his only contribution, namely a poem which is addressed to Fínghin and (in a later stanza) to Caitlín.
Nearer to the beginning (ff. 42ra, 49v, 53rb, 59ra), the main scribe adds four marginal notes dedicated to an unnamed couple (lánamhna). This has been taken to refer to Fínghin and Caitlín, but this remains uncertain. Ó Cuív posits the alternative possibility that the first part of the manuscript may have been commissioned by another married couple, such as Fínghin's parents.(3)n. 3 Brian Ó Cuív, ‘Observations on the Book of Lismore’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83 C (1983)..
Later provenance: Supposed to have been discovered in Lismore Castle (Co. Waterford) in 1814 and re-assembled sometime after 1856.(4)n. 4 Brian Ó Cuív, ‘Observations on the Book of Lismore’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83 C (1983).
Hands, scribes
Ó Macháin (ISOS) distinguishes between the following scribes: (1) The main scribe (anonymous), who was responsible for the greater part of the manuscript; (2) Aonghus Ó Callanáin, responsible for the Acallam bec and other texts (ff. 132-134, 194-201); (3) The scribe (anonymous) of the poem on f. 158, ascribed to Mathghamhain Ó Dhálaigh, beg. Ni téd an égean a naisgidh; and (4) a number of assistants (“relief scribes”) working for the main scribe.
Hands indexed:
Scribe 1 (main) Anonymous, was responsible for the greater part of the manuscript.
Scribe 2 Aonghus Ó Callanáin, responsible for the Acallam bec and other texts (ff. 132-134, 194-201); on f. 134rb, states explicitly that he writes for Mhág Carthaig .i. Finghean mac Diarmada. Aonghus Ó CallanáinÓ Callanáin (Aonghus)
(fl. 15th century)
Aonghus (Aonghas) Ó Callanáin, Irish scribe, responsible for writing parts of the Book of Lismore for his patron, Fínghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach of Cairbre (Co. Cork). His transcriptions include texts of the Acallam bec and Suidiugud tellaig Temra.
See more
Scribe 3 The scribe (anonymous) of the poem on f. 158, ascribed to Mathghamhain Ó Dhálaigh, beg. Ni téd an égean a naisgidh
Scribe 4 First of “possibly four relief scribes employed by the main scribe”: ff. 41rb2-13, 53ra1-17, 56ra1-9, 61vb1-16.
Scribe 5 Second of “possibly four relief scribes employed by the main scribe”: ff. 87va1-31.
Scribe 6 Third of “possibly four relief scribes employed by the main scribe”: ff. 125rb21-37.
Scribe 7 Fourth of “possibly four relief scribes employed by the main scribe”: ff. 184ra15-32.
Patron
Caitlín [daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald]
Caitlín ... daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald
(d. 1506)
daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald (d. 1468), eighth earl of Desmond, and wife of Fínghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach (d. 1505). She and her husband were credited as patrons of the Book of Lismore.
See more Mac Carthaigh Riabhach (Fínghin)
Mac Carthaigh Riabhach (Fínghin)
(d. 1505)
Fínghin (Fínghin; Fínghean) Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach of Cairbre, head of the Cairbre branch of the Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach family; patron who commissioned the compilation of the Book of Lismore
See more
Exemplars
Copies or excerpts
Codicological information
Material
vellum
Palaeographical information
Layout
two columns, except e.g. on f. 116r and f. 158r
Table of contents
Legend
Texts

Links to texts use a standardised title for the catalogue and so may or may not reflect what is in the manuscript itself, hence the square brackets. Their appearance comes in three basic varieties, which are signalled through colour coding and the use of icons, , and :

  1. - If a catalogue entry is both available and accessible, a direct link will be made. Such links are blue-ish green and marked by a bookmark icon.
  2. - When a catalogue entry does not exist yet, a desert brown link with a different icon will take you to a page on which relevant information is aggregated, such as relevant publications and other manuscript witnesses if available.
  3. - When a text has been ‘captured’, that is, a catalogue entry exists but is still awaiting publication, the same behaviour applies and a crossed eye icon is added.

The above method of differentiating between links has not been applied yet to texts or citations from texts which are included in the context of other texts, commonly verses.

Locus

While it is not a reality yet, CODECS seeks consistency in formatting references to locations of texts and other items of interest in manuscripts. Our preferences may be best explained with some examples:

  • f. 23ra.34: meaning folio 23 recto, first column, line 34
  • f. 96vb.m: meaning folio 96, verso, second column, middle of the page (s = top, m = middle, i = bottom)
    • Note that marg. = marginalia, while m = middle.
  • p. 67b.23: meaning page 67, second column, line 23
The list below has been collated from the table of contents, if available on this page,Progress in this area is being made piecemeal. Full and partial tables of contents are available for a small number of manuscripts. and incoming annotations for individual texts (again, if available).Whenever catalogue entries about texts are annotated with information about particular manuscript witnesses, these manuscripts can be queried for the texts that are linked to them.
Irish manuscripts

Sources

Notes

1.
Brian Ó Cuív, ‘Observations on the Book of Lismore’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83 C (1983).
2.
Brian Ó Cuív, ‘Observations on the Book of Lismore’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83 C (1983).
3.
Brian Ó Cuív, ‘Observations on the Book of Lismore’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83 C (1983).
4.
Brian Ó Cuív, ‘Observations on the Book of Lismore’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83 C (1983).

Primary sources This section typically includes references to diplomatic editions, facsimiles and photographic reproductions, notably digital image archives, of at least a major portion of the manuscript. For editions of individual texts, see their separate entries.

[dig. img.] “University College Cork”, Anne-Marie OʼBrien, and Pádraig Ó Macháin, Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) – Meamrám Páipéar Ríomhaire, Online: School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1999–present. URL: <https://www.isos.dias.ie/collection/ucc.html>.
Reproduction and summary description. direct link
[facs.] Macalister, R. A. S., The Book of Mac Carthaigh Riabhach, otherwise the Book of Lismore, Facsimiles in Collotype of Irish Manuscripts, 5, Dublin: Stationery Office, 1950. Facsimile edition, with introduction and indices.

Secondary sources (select)

Ó Macháin, Pádraig, “Chatsworth, The Book of Lismore: summary description”, Anne-Marie OʼBrien, and Pádraig Ó Macháin, Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) – Meamrám Páipéar Ríomhaire, Online: School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 2012–. URL: <https://www.isos.dias.ie/UCC/UCC_TheBookOfLismore.html>.
Ó Cuív, Brian, “Observations on the Book of Lismore”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 83 C (1983): 269–292.
Jstor: <link>
Ó Cuív, Brian, “A poem for Fínghin Mac Carthaigh Riabhach”, Celtica 15 (1983): 96–110.
Macalister, R. A. S., The Book of Mac Carthaigh Riabhach, otherwise the Book of Lismore, Facsimiles in Collotype of Irish Manuscripts, 5, Dublin: Stationery Office, 1950. Facsimile edition, with introduction and indices.
Breatnach, Caoimhín, “Lismore, Book of”, in: Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Ireland: an encyclopedia, New York and London: Routledge, 2005. 279–280.
Stokes, Whitley [ed. and tr.], Lives of saints from the Book of Lismore, Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series, 5, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890.
CELT: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>, <link> Internet Archive: <link>

External links

International Image Interoperability Framework logo.png
IIIF Manifest URL – isos.dias.ie.
    CELT: extract from Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Medieval Irish books and texts. The final version was published in Clavis litterarum Hibernensium: medieval Irish books & texts (c.400–c.1600) (Brepols, 2017).
      web page identifiers
      Contributors
      Dennis Groenewegen
      Page created
      December 2010, last updated: December 2023
      Retrieved from ‘https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?title=Cork,_University_College,_Book_of_Lismore&oldid=278428’