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Bretha nemed dédenach‘The last Bretha nemed (‘Judgments of privileged persons’)’

  • prose, verse, rosc
  • Early Irish law texts
Old Irish tract on the law concerning poets, such as their privileges and their responsibilities, as well as various other matters, such as fosterage and surety.
Title
Bretha nemed dédenach
‘The last Bretha nemed (‘Judgments of privileged persons’)’
Bretha nemed dé(i)denach.
Manuscripts

include:

Form
prose, verse, rosc (primary)
Textual relationships
Related: The advice to DoidinThe advice to DoidinEarly Irish tecosc-text in the form of legal advice addressed to one Doidin mac Nin(e).
Associated items
The birth of AthirneThe birth of AthirneAn anecdote related in Bretha nemed dédenach about the birth of the Ulster poet Athairne/Athirne.Cen cholt for crib cernineCen cholt for crib cernineA quatrain of verse purporting to represent the first satire in Ireland.Comrac Con Culainn re SenbeccComrac Con Culainn re SenbeccTwo different versions of the story of Cú Chulainn and Senbecc.Udhacht AthairneUdhacht AthairneAn anecdote related in Bretha nemed dédenach, in which Athirne prophesies the birth of Christ and gives instructions to his pupils.

Classification

Early Irish law textsEarly Irish law texts
...

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.

Diplomatic editions
[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)
1111.1–1132.40 TCD 1317
[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 2, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
comments: numbered pp. 339–744; diplomatic edition of legal material from: London, British Library, MS Harley 432; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1316; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337.
603.16–604.38; 725.7–726.20 TCD 1337
[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).
1587.18–1588.8 TCD 1363
[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 6, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.  
comments: numbered pp. 1926–2343; diplomatic edition of legal material from:
  • Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1336 (continued)
  • Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1387
  • Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 502
  • Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1308
  • London, British Library, MS Additional 4783
  • London, British Library, MS Nero A 7
  • Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, MS NKS 261b
  • Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 3
  • Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 11
  • Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS C i 2
  • Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1318/16
  • Dublin, Trinity College, MS E 3. 3
2342.16–2343.21 (De dlighedh Gotha) Glossed passage
Critical editions and translations
[ed.] Gwynn, E. J., “An Old-Irish tract on the privileges and responsibilities of poets”, Ériu 13 (1942): 1–60, 220–236.
13–44.23 (TCD 1317; what follows is from BNT); 54–56 (extracts from TCD 1337, pt 4); 59–60 (notes referring to some extracts from TCD 1337, pt 9, transcribed by Eleanor Knott)
[tr.] Ó Corráin, Donnchadh, Liam Breatnach, and Aidan Breen, “The laws of the Irish”, Peritia 3 (1984): 382–438.
420–422. Portions of the text in translation.
[tr.] Watkins, Calvert, “Indo-European metrics and archaic Irish verse”, Celtica 6 (1963): 194–249.
226, 230, 233, 236, 240 Translations of several passages from the text.
[tr.] Breatnach, Liam [ed. and tr.], Uraicecht na ríar: the poetic grades in early Irish law, Early Irish Law Series, 2, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1987.
42–57 An edition and translation, with notes, of select passages from the text. See the table of contents.

Secondary sources (select)

Breatnach, Liam, A companion to the Corpus iuris Hibernici, Early Irish Law Series, 5, Dublin: DIAS, 2005.  
comments: A companion to Binchy (D. A.) 1978a. Review article: McLeod, Neil, “A true companion to the Corpus iuris Hibernici”, Peritia 19 (2005).
184–188 [id. 5.15. ‘Bretha Nemed Dédenach’]
Breatnach, Liam, “Satire, praise and the early Irish poet”, Ériu 56 (2006): 63–84.
Kelly, Fergus, A guide to early Irish law, Early Irish Law Series, 3, Dublin: DIAS, 1988.
268–269, 45, 47, 51 n. 104, 64 n. 198, 67, 78, 116, 137–138, 147, 162, 170 n. 93, 235.
Stacey, Robin Chapman, Dark speech: the performance of law in early Ireland, The Middle Ages Series, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
197–201
Breatnach, Liam, “Araile felmac féig don Mumain: unruly pupils and the limitations of satire”, Ériu 59 (2009): 111–137.  
This paper offers an annotated edition and translation of a short Middle Irish tale about poets. It includes discussion of language and date, Bérla na Filed, the metre aí fhreisligi and the use of satire as a means of gaining redress.
(source: p. 111)
Gwynn, E. J., “An Old-Irish tract on the privileges and responsibilities of poets”, Ériu 13 (1942): 1–60, 220–236.
1–12 (introduction); 57–60, 220–232 (notes)
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
May 2011, last updated: May 2021
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