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About the selected image
Book of Kells (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 58), f. 200r. Retrieved through IIIF from digitalcollections.tcd.ie.

A module for identifying agents - encompassing persons, peoples and organisations - and managing information about them has been around for many years, continually evolving as time went by, but what was absent all this time is a public interface for accessing relevant data in a user-friendly way.

This is a first attempt at offering such an interface, which is provided "as-is" and should be considered beta-quality for now (not that there is any official product release cycle as such but using the label is a convenient means to sound the right alarm bells). It currently consists of a basic search, aggregated data overviews for individual agents, and hover-card labels that you will meet elsewhere in the catalogue.

I am aware of duplicates, uneven coverage and other shortcomings that typically arise from the progressive nature of this website or simply, lack of personpower. An earlier version of the interface was available to editors partly because it helps us address some of those issues. None of these objections, however, seemed to weigh heavily against the alternative, which is having nothing at all to offer.

Note that for convenience's sake, many agents are not formally indexed but are nonetheless included by exclusive virtue of being linked. It is a wonderful forte of the system that allows us to retrieve and bring together disparate data from disparate data sources, but some useful metadata will be missing and discoverability is more limited as a result. For instance, we may be linking to a scribe whose name and associated data can be retrieved and presented, but without, say, a floruit it will be difficult to find this person within the appropriate time range. I say "difficult" because it is possible, to an extent, to rely on the dates we have, if any, for associated objects (manuscripts, scribal hands), but such a circuitous approach comes with limitations of its own and is not necessarily methodologically sound.

Meanwhile, I hope that the new interface will improve your experience in using this website. Next up are thematic categories for scribes (in the broadest, non-pejorative sense of the word), authors and scholars.

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People
Institutions

Randomised results

Scribes
  • Moses Williams
    1685–1742
    Welsh scholar, antiquarian and clergyman.
  • Robeartus Mac Síthigh
    fl. early 15th century
    Robeartus Mac Síthigh, Irish scribe, known as one of the three that wrote parts of the Book of Ballymote (RIA MS 23 P 12) under the tutelage of Domnall Mac Aedhagáin.
  • Charles Vallancey
    d. 1812
  • Pól Ó Longáin
    1801–1866
    scribe who was based in Co. Cork and belonged to the Ó Longáin family of scribes; son of Mícheál Óg and brother of Peadar Ó Longáin.
  • Llywelyn Siôn
    c.1540–c.1615(?)
    Llywelyn of Llangewydd, Welsh poet and farmer
  • Seán Mac Gabhráin
    fl. early 18th c.
    Irish scribe.
  • Aonghus Ó Callanáin
    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''.
  • Philip O'Sullivan Beare
    d. 1634 or after
    Irish historian and author, of the O'Sullivans of Beare and Bantry, who lived as an exile in Spain and Portugal, following the Nine Years’ War and the Irish defeat at Kinsale. He wrote a number of Latin treatises on subjects of Irish interest.
  • Nicholas O'Kearney
    fl. 19th century
    Nicholas O'Kearney /Nioclás Ó Cearnaigh, Irish scholar
  • Patrick Lynch [d. 1838]
    c.1756–1838
    Irish scholar born in Co. Down as the son of a schoolteacher (Terence Lynch); taught Irish at Belfast Academy and published in the Irish-language magazine Bolg an tSoláir. Some of his contributions to scholarship on the Irish language went uncredited.
  • Eoghan Ó Caoimh
    1656–1726
    Munster poet and scribe.
  • Tadhg Ó Neachtain
    c.1670–c. 1752
    Irish scribe and scholar, son of Seán Ó Neachtain.
  • Seán Ó Catháin [scribe]
    fl. 1720s
    Irish scribe responsible for BL MS Egerton 184 and RIA MS 23 G 4.
  • Anonymous [LU scribe H]
    s. xii
    Anonymous scribe, usually known simply as H or the Interpolator, who significantly annotated, revised and interpolated parts of the Lebor na hUidre (RIA MS 23 E 25) and sometimes intercalated leaves to add material. The modern name H stands for ‘Homilist’, which stems from the fact that he added two homilies, Scéla laí brátha and Scéla na hEsérgi. His identity, background and precise floruit remain uncertain.
  • Dúnchad of Clonmacnoise
    d. 989
    Dúnchad úa Braín (grandson of Braen), saint and abbot/coarb of Clonmacnoise, who is said to have died ‘on pilgrimage’ (AU) in Armagh.
    • Authors

    A random selecton of authors and those so described.

  • Áedán mac Melláin
    fl. ?
    early Munster poet of whom little is known. The tale Cath Maige Mucrama cites a quatrain beg. Usce Máge cenbad sruth (§ 5), perhaps ascribed to him, which says that the river Maigue (Co. Cork and Co. Limerick) passes by his courtyard (les).
  • Robert Davies [d. 1835]
    1769–1835
    Welsh poet and grammarian, a native of Nantglyn (Denbighshire).
  • William Bodinar
    fl. 18th century
    William Bodinar (previously misread as Bodener), a fisherman of Mousehole, known today for a (partially) bilingual English-Cornish letter, dated 1776, which he wrote to the lawyer and antiquary Daines Barrington and bears witness to a remnant of the Cornish language.
  • Dubhaltach Mac Fhir Bhisigh
    d. 1671
    Dubhaltach (Óg) Mac Fhir Bhisigh, Irish historian and scribe, member of the learned Mac Fhir Bhisigh family in Connacht
  • Iolo Morganwg
    1747–1826
    Edward Williams, better known by the bardic name he chose for himself, Iolo Morganwg, was a Welsh poet and antiquarian as well as a literary forger.
  • Thady Dowling
    fl. c. 1544–1628
    Irish church administrator and scholar, who wrote a short set of annals as well as a grammar.
  • Risteard Ó Conchubhair
    1561–1625
    Irish scribe and physician from a medical family in Ossory.
  • William Hals
    1655–1737?
    Cornish antiquarian, author of a History of Cornwall (published, posthumously, in 1750) and a (misguided) Cornish-English vocabulary.
  • John Davies [of Mallwyd]
    d. 1644
    John Davies of Mallwyd, Welsh scholar, author of a Welsh grammar and dictionary
  • Fedelm [Connacht prophetess]
    female poet (banfhili) and seeress (banfáith) associated with Connacht at the beginning of recensions I and II of the Táin; trained in Alba, according to the first recension; may ultimately be identical with the Fedelm Foltcháin who features in the fore-tale (remscél) known as Ces Ulad.
  • Aonghus Ó Callanáin [medic]
    ''fl. c''. 1403
    Irish medic who together with Niocól Ó hÍceadha undertook a vernacular translation of a commentary on the ''Aphorisms'' of Hippocrates.
  • Ollam mac Delbaíth
    Ollam (‘chief poet’) mac Delbaíth, minor character of the Túatha Dé Danann who is given as the father of Aí (‘poetic inspiration’) and then sometimes as a son of Delbáeth.
  • Mo Ling
    d. 697
    Irish saint, abbot and patron saint of Tech Mo Ling (St Mullins, Co. Carlow) and reputed ‘bishop’ of Ferna (Ferns).
  • Uilliam Mac an Leagha
    fl. 15th century
    Irish author, translator and scribe
  • Dubthach maccu Lugair
    supp. fl. 432
    Legendary Irish poet and legal expert, who plays an important role in the pseudo-historical prologue to the ''Senchas Már''.
    • Retrieved from ‘https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?title=Show:Agents&oldid=264884’