Manuscripts


Anchorite of Llandewi Brefi (fl. mid–14th century)
Anonymous scribe usually known as the ‘anchorite of Llandewi Brefi’.



Anonymous scribe/annotator whose Irish hand is detected in a number of continental manuscripts of Eriugena’s works. Since a study by E. K. Rand, the hand is usually designatedl i¹, distinguishing it from that of a fellow scribe, which is designated i². T. A. M. Bishop, Edouard Jeauneau and Bernhard Bischoff identified it as the hand of Eriugena himself, but others have argued that he was probably one of his assistants.

Anonymous scribe/annotator whose Irish hand is detected in a number of continental manuscripts of Eriugena’s works and who was probably an assistant of Eriugena. Since a study by E. K. Rand, the hand is usually designatedl i², distinguishing it from that of a fellow scribe, which is designated i¹. Because he is known to have written annotations beg. Nisi forte quis dixerit to some of Eriugena’s bolder statements, modern scholars have nicknamed him Nisifortinus.








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.














Arthur (Thomas) (1593–1675)
Limerick physician educated at Bordeaux and a Catholic with an interest in devotional literature. One of his better known patients was bishop James Ussher, who at one time appears to have lent him a manuscript of the so-called Kilkenny recension of Latin lives of Irish saints. A manuscript of transcripts by Thomas is still extant.

Bale (John) (1495–1563)
English protestant churchman; bishop of Ossory (1552/3); antiquarian and collector of manuscripts; author of a number of polemical plays, such as Kynge Johan, and an autobiographical work called The Vocacyon of Johan Bale.

Beaton (John) ... of Kilninian (fl. second half of the 17th century)
Rev. John Beaton, episcopalian minister of Kilninian, Mull; second son of John Beaton (1594-1657); physician and head of medical family

Betham (William) (1779–1853)
(Sir) William Betham, English antiquary and collector of manuscripts; member of the Royal Irish Academy



Book of Taliesin scribe (fl. first half of the 14th century)
An anonymous scribe whose hand, designated ‘X86’ by Daniel Huws, has been identified in five Welsh manuscripts, of which the Book of Taliesin (Peniarth 2) may be the best known. Others are Peniarth 6 part 4 (Gereint), NLW MS 3036B (Brut y brenhinedd), and BL Cotton Cleopatra MS A xiv and Harley MS 4353 (both containing copies of the Cyfnerth recension of Cyfraith Hywel). It is not possible to pinpoint any particular monastic house with certainty, but he seems to have been active in the general area of southeast- or mid-Wales.



Broccán ... scribe (suppl fl. 5th century)
Irish saint noted for having been a scribe (scríbnid) of Saint Patrick’s household. There are other saints of the same name or name-group (Broc, Broccaid, Broccán) who were said to be related to St Patrick, such as Broccaid of Emlagh (Co. Roscommon) and Broccán of Breachmagh/Breaghey (Co. Armagh), both of whom are given as a son of Patrick’s sister Darerca. Ó Riain has suggested that they may have all originated as a single individual.

Brooke (John) ... of Mawddwy (fl. 16th century)
Welsh antiquary and scribe.


Brownlow (Arthur) (1645–1712)
Anglo-Irish landowner at Lurgan (Co. Armagh) whose collection of Irish manuscripts attracted the attention of Edward Lhuyd in 1699.

Bryson (Samuel) (1778–1853)
Irish scribe from Belfast



Carte (Thomas) (1686–1754)
English clergyman (C of E) and historian.



Cherry (Francis) ... English non-juror (1665–23 September 1713)
English non-juror (i.e. clergyman who did not acknowledge William III and Mary II); philanthropist, and patron of Thomas Hearne.

Colgan (John) (d. 1658)
Irish Franciscan at St Anthony’s College, Louvain; scholar, theologian, editor and hagiographer.

scriba at Kildare

Connellan (Owen) (c.1797–1871)

Connellan (Thaddeus) (c.1780–1854)
Irish-language scholar and scribe.

Cotton (Robert) (1570/71–1631)
Sir Robert Bruce, 1st baronet, of Connington Hall, was an English politician, antiquary and collector of manuscripts, who established the Cotton library.





John Davies of Mallwyd, Welsh scholar, author of a Welsh grammar and dictionary






Abbot of Iona for only a brief period of time in 713, the year in which he died. He is commonly identified with the scribe Dorbbeneus who signs his name in the Schaffhausen manuscript of the Vita sancti Columbae.




Dúnchad úa Braín (grandson of Braen), saint and abbot/coarb of Clonmacnoise, who is said to have died ‘on pilgrimage’ (AU) in Armagh.


Welsh cleric and theologian; principal of Jesus College (1686-1712).

A clergyman active in Denbighshire. Evans was born ca. 1523 in Wales. He graduated at Brasenose College in Oxford in 1548-9 and took his MA there in 1553. He held a prebendary at St Paul’s cathedral in 1558. In 1560 he moved to north Wales, where he became dean of St Asaph, Denbighshire (1560-1587); sinecure rector of Cwm, Flintshire (1566-1574); vicar of Northop, Flintshire (1571-1577); and vicar of Henllan, Denbighshire (1582-d.1587). Evans died on 17 December 1587, aged 64 (Marx 2015). It has been suggested (O'Rourke 2003) that he may well have been the same Hugh Evans who was responsible for compiling the composite manuscript NLW Peniarth MS 12.









Goolde (John) ... friar and scribe (fl. c.17th century, first half)
Friar, guardian of the Franciscan friary in Cashel, and scribe who was responsible for a copy of the Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae and had worked together with the Four Masters.



Gruffydd (Elis) (c.1490–1552)
Welsh administrator and soldier as well as a chronicler and translator, who is probably known for having compiled an extensive Welsh-language chronicle of world history.

Gutun Owain (fl. second half of the 15th century)
Gutun Owain (Gruffudd ap Huw ab Owain), Welsh poet and scribe

Gwavas (William) (1676–1741/2)
British barrister, Cornish-language scholar and collector.

Gwilym Tew (fl. c.1460–1480)
Welsh poet and copyist from Glamorgan.

Gwilym Was Da (fl. c. 1300)
al. Gwilym Wasta, Welsh scribe


Huw Machno (fl. 1585–1637)
Welsh poet.

Hywel Fychan ap Hywel Goch (fl. 14th century)
Hywel Fychan ap Hywel Goch was a fourteenth century Welsh scribe. He was a man with clerical training who knew Latin and was able to edit and organize a book. He also wrote lawbooks.  Hywel Fychan is most famous for being the chief scribe of the Red Book of Hergest (Oxford, Jesus College, MS 111). He is also connected to Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 11; Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Llanstephan MS 27 (Llyfr Coch Talgarth); and Philadelphia, Library Company, MS 8680.O. He furthermore made a contribution to the Culchwch ac Olwen-text of the White Book of Rhydderch (Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth 4-5) on folio 83v.



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.




John Scottus Eriugena (fl 9th century)
Irish scholar and theologian who had been active as a teacher at the palace school of Charles the Bald.

Welsh cleric, vicar (or parson?) of Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd (Denbighshire), and poet.

Welsh calligrapher and transcriber of Welsh manuscripts


Cornishman responsible for an incomplete transcript of the Cornish biblical play known as The creacion of the world or Gwreans an bys.



Leland (John) (c.1503–1552)
English antiquary and poet.

A 12th-century nun of Mallersdorf, a daughter-house of Niedermünster in Bavaria, who according to one late source, was of Irish origin (de gente Scotorum), knew four languages (Irish, Latin, Greek and German) and had a reputation as a scribe, so much so that the monk Laiupold recorded her anniversary.

Welsh barrister and historian. He was author of a History of Great-Britain, which did not appear in print until 1729.


Llywelyn Siôn (c.1540–c.1615(?))
Llywelyn of Llangewydd, Welsh poet and farmer

Lúid (Seán) (1741–c.1786)
Irish schoolmaster from Limerick; author of Short tour, or an impartial and accurate description of the County of Clare (1780).

Known in Breton as Fañch an Uhel, a collector of Breton folklore and songs; author/compiler of works such as Gwerziou Breiz-Izel: chants populaires de la Basse-Bretagne (1868–74) and Kontadennoù ar Bobl (1847–92).

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.





Mac an Leagha (Uilliam) (fl. 15th century)
Irish author, translator and scribe



Irish scribe


Mac Aodhagáin (Conall) (fl. 15th/16th century?)
Irish scribe.

Irish scribe.

Mac Aodhagáin (Seán) (fl. 15th century)
Irish scribe responsible for the literary miscellany in RIA D iv 2, ff. 74-89r.

Mac Aedagáin; MacEgan (anglicized); important learned family of legal historians and scribes based in Connacht and Co. Tipperary.

Mac Bionaid (Art) (1793–1879)
Irish scholar, scribe and poet.

Mac Carraic (Héinrí) (fl. 18th century)
Irish scribe from the town of Sligo.


Mac Cruitín (Aindrias) (c.1650–1738)
Irish poet


Irish scholar and scribe who adapted Innocent III’s tract De contemptu mundi in Irish.


Mac Fhir Bhisigh, Ciothruadh mac Taidhg Ruaidh - apparently a great-great-grandson of the scribe Giolla Íosa Mac Fhir Bhisigh. He is known primarily because he added a footnote to cols 380–81 of Yellow Book Lecan (TCD 1318), in which he states his name and gives the title of the manuscript as Leabhar buidhe ‘Yellow book’. When Ciothruadh's manuscript was bound together with other, unrelated parts, the title was carried over to the compilation as a whole.

Irish scholar and scribe of the Mac Fhir Bhisigh learned family

Dubhaltach (Óg) Mac Fhir Bhisigh, Irish historian and scribe, member of the learned Mac Fhir Bhisigh family in Connacht

Mac Fhir Bhisigh (Giolla Íosa) (fl. c. 1390–1418)

Irish scribe, son and assistant of Giolla Íosa Mac Fhir Bhisigh

Mac Gabhráin (Seán) (fl. early 18th c.)
Irish scribe.

Mac Gearailt (Piaras) (1702—c.1792)
Poet from Co. Cork


Mac Mathghamhna (Aindrias) (fl. second half of the 18th century)
Aindrias Mac Mathghamhna, Irish scribe



Mac Muireadhaigh (Cathal) (fl. first half of the 17th century)
Gaelic poet and scribe.


Pátruic Mac Oghannan/Oghannain, Irish scribe



Mac Síthigh (Robeartus) (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.


MacLachlan (Ewen) (1773–1822)
Gaelic scholar and poet; librarian at the University and King's College, Aberdeen (1800-1818); head of the Grammar School (1819-1822); was involved in the compilation of John Macleod’s Gaelic-English dictionary.









Magraidhin (Aughuistín) (fl. c.1349–d. 1405)
Irish chronicler and canon regular at the Augustinian priory of All Saints on Oileán na Naomh (Saints Island) in Lough Ree (Co. Longford).



Irish scribe, who founded the Irish monastic community at Regensburg (Ratisbon) in Bavaria, the first of the Schottenklöster to be founded in southern Germany.

Martin of Laon (819–875)
Irish scholar and teacher at the cathedral school at Laon.


Welsh antiquary, collector of manuscripts



Irish scribe.

Welsh scholar and land surveyor. He and his brother Richard founded the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.

Humanist scholar and collector and copier of manuscripts.








Ó Bruadair (Dáibhí) (fl. 1625–c.1698(?))
Prolific Irish poet.

Ó Cadhla (Corc Óg) (fl .1570s–80s)
Irish medical scribe


Archdeacon of Clogher, known for his scribal work in manuscripts of the Annals of Ulster.

Ó 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.



Ó Caoimh (Eoghan) (1656–1726)
Munster poet and scribe.

Irish scribe responsible for BL MS Egerton 184 and RIA MS 23 G 4.


Ó Cianáin (Ádam) (fl. 14th century)
Ádam Ó Cianáin of Lisgoole, Co. Fermanagh, Irish scribe. His obit is recorded in AFM s.a. 1374.

Ó Cianáin (Maoílechlainn) (fl. late 15th century)
Irish scribe responsible for Dublin, King's Inns, MS 12-13 (c. 1491/2), a compilation of classical Greco-Roman tales in Irish







A brother of Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and one of the occasional assistants of the Four Masters.

Ó Cléirigh (Cú Choigcríche) (d. in or after 1664)
Irish scholar, poet, historian and scribe; one of the so-named ‘Four Masters’.

Irish scribe, son of Tuathal son of Tadhg Cam Ó Cléirigh. He is the main scribe of the miscellany Harley MS 5820 and Rawlinson MS 514 containing Maghnus Ó Domhnall’s Life of Colum Cille. His own floruit cannot be pinned down with any precision but his father is kown to have died in 1512.



FURTHER RESULTS…