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Irish treatise on the Faith and the sacraments

  • Irish
  • prose

Irish religious treatise which is usually treated as a single composition and consists of two parts. It is found in the Leabhar Breac, where it directly follows a text of Fís Adomnáin (‘The vision of Adomnán’) and is followed not much later by Fís Adomnáin II .

Title
Irish treatise on the Faith and the sacraments

There is no generally accepted title. The catalogue description of LB calls it “Homily on Christian Faith and loyalty to the Church”.

First words (prose)
  • Cach duine risna dúthracht síd ⁊ cend-sa in Choimmded d'fhagbail [first part] ... Ísu Críst Macc Ríg níme ⁊ talman, in Tres Persu na Trinóti is comoesa ... [second part]
Manuscripts
Language
  • Irish
Form
prose (primary)

Classification

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.] Hogan, Edmund [ed.], The Irish Nennius from L. na Huidre and homilies and legends from L. Brecc: alphabetical index of Irish neuter substantives, Todd Lecture Series, 6, Dublin, 1895.  
Consists of texts and translations of [1] the Lebor na hUidre fragment of the Lebor Bretnach: The Irish Nennius, LU 1a (p. 1); Senchas na torothor (p. 7); Ambrose and the king of the Britons, LU 2a (10); De chathaigecht Gorthemir (12); and [2] a selection of homilies from the Leabhar Breac: Instruction on the Sacraments, LB 257 (p.17); Articles of the Creed, LB 256a (p.29); Incipit do scelaib na soscel, 133b (p.38); Do scelaibh na mbuachalla, 136a (p. 52); Incipit do scelaib na ndruad, 137a (p.59); Oided na macraide, 139b (p.74). With preface, index of Irish neuter endings, alphabetical index of Irish neuter nouns, and an index of rare words.
Internet Archive: <link>
29–37 (paragraphs 46–57) [‘On some articles of the Creed’] First part.
[ed.] [tr.] Hogan, Edmund [ed.], The Irish Nennius from L. na Huidre and homilies and legends from L. Brecc: alphabetical index of Irish neuter substantives, Todd Lecture Series, 6, Dublin, 1895.  
Consists of texts and translations of [1] the Lebor na hUidre fragment of the Lebor Bretnach: The Irish Nennius, LU 1a (p. 1); Senchas na torothor (p. 7); Ambrose and the king of the Britons, LU 2a (10); De chathaigecht Gorthemir (12); and [2] a selection of homilies from the Leabhar Breac: Instruction on the Sacraments, LB 257 (p.17); Articles of the Creed, LB 256a (p.29); Incipit do scelaib na soscel, 133b (p.38); Do scelaibh na mbuachalla, 136a (p. 52); Incipit do scelaib na ndruad, 137a (p.59); Oided na macraide, 139b (p.74). With preface, index of Irish neuter endings, alphabetical index of Irish neuter nouns, and an index of rare words.
Internet Archive: <link>
17–29 (paragraphs 27–45) [‘Instruction on the Sacraments’] Second part.
[ed.] Malone, Sylvester, Church history of Ireland: from the Anglo-Norman invasion to the reformation, with succession of bishops down to the present day, 2 vols, vol. 2, 3rd ed., Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1880.
Internet Archive: <link>
270–271 [‘Appendix J’]
[tr.] Malone, Sylvester, Church history of Ireland: from the Anglo-Norman invasion to the reformation, with succession of bishops down to the present day, 2 vols, vol. 1, 3rd ed., Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1880.
Internet Archive: <link>
123–129

Skips the “last article of the Creed in reference to Christ the Second Person” but translates “the dogma connected with the Second Person of the Trinity”.

Secondary sources (select)

Horst, Tom ter, “Codeswitching in the Irish-Latin Leabhar Breac: mediæval homiletic culture”, PhD dissertation, LOT, 2017.  
abstract:
An Leabhar Breac ('The Speckled Book'; c.1410) is a manuscript containing a collection of mostly religious material in both Latin and Irish, now housed in Dublin at the Royal Irish Academy. The present publication explores the make-up of the manuscript, focusing on the question which languages are used where and for which texts, and singling out individual texts which use a combination of languages within the same speech act, a process called codeswitching. Special attention is paid to the genre of the homily, a moral commentary on religious themes. The use of Latin and Irish in such texts can shed light on the intellectual culture of Ireland, an important centre of learning in mediaeval Europe. The Leabhar Breac manuscript is a composite piece of various sources, most of which date to about 1100, though some may be dated as late as 1350. By studying the languages of these texts, one can hypothesise about the languages and dates of their sources, and thus about the availability and level of Latin learning in Irish intellectual society through time. For this purpose it is important to study not only individual texts but also the quires in which they occur. The hierarchy and juxtaposition of texts and languages is an indication of their intended manner of composition, while the level of compositional ability on the part of the author or scribe is a reflection of bilingual education. Such a bilingual education can then be compared to similar circumstances such as Latin-English sermons in England.
LOT – PDF: <link>
86
web page identifiers
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
January 2024, last updated: February 2024
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