Texts
Annals of Ulster
Incoming data
Manuscript witnesses
MS
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 574
rubric: Annales Ultonienses... Copy based on that in Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1282, running up to AD 665, with a translation into Latin as far as AD 491. Written by Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh? A note on p.430, prefixed to the transcript, reads: “Sequentia Latine scripta, charactere vero Hibernico, sunt excerpta ex annalibus Ultoniensibus. Confer Usserii Primordia, p. 855 (edit. 4o), cum his Annalibus, p. 436, ad A.D. 444. Confer etiam Warei Scriptores cum p. 442 horum Annalium ad ann. 467 et 468 et ailibi” (Mc Carthy, Annála Uladh, vol. 4, xi-xii).
p. 431–
Text
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 574
Copy of H up to AD 665, with a translation into Latin as far as AD 491. Written by Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh? Mac Carthy and Hennessy, vol. IV, pp. xi-xii.
ff. 431–514
MS
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1282
There is a marginal note which is barely legible today but comparison with earlier transcripts, in TCD 574 (17th century) and in Hennessy's edition (vol. 1, p. 2), allows for a reconstructed reading: IHC / Mei est incipere, Dei est finire, where Hennessy reads tui for Dei. See Evans, p. 10 and esp. n. 61. Variations of the formula in the second line (‘Mine it is to begin, it is to God to finish’) occur in other manuscripts. Evans accepts the note as evidence for the Annals of Ulster beginning on this page and being quite separate from the preceding annals. Mc Carthy objects that the note is a later addition by H2 rather than the work of the main scribe (Medieval Review, Oct 2004).
f. 16r–
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.] Hennessy, William M., and B. Mac Carthy [eds. and trs.], Annala Uladh: Annals of Ulster, otherwise Annala Senait, Annals of Senat: a chronicle of Irish affairs from A.D. 431 to A.D. 1540, Partial, revised ed., Online: CELT, 2008–. URL: <http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001A http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001B http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001C http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001A http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001B http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001C>.
comments: The edition available from CELT is accompanied by the following statements (accessed 13:10, 1 February 2011 (CET)):
- “[...] For the remainder of the text (AD 1155 to the end) we have had to use Mac Carthy's very unsatisfactory edition. His codicological information is obscure, his citation of variants is patchy, and he makes many unnecessary or wrong-headed attempts at emendation. These latter are simply ignored, but emendations and corrections by Whitley Stokes (1896, 1897) are integrated into the text. It is not, however, possible to produce a satisfactory digital edition from Mac Carthy's ragged apparatus.]”
and:
- “Editorial corrigenda (where relevant and well-founded) are integrated into the electronic edition. Unnecessary or mistaken corrections by Mac Carthy (these appear in brackets in his edition) are simply ignored in the electronic text. Missing text supplied by the editors in the body of the work is tagged sup. Editorial and scribal corrections entered in the body of the work are tagged corr and the original reading is kept in the sic attribute. In the case of some unusual forms not commented by the editors of the hard copy the manuscript reading is tagged sic, without further comment by the makers of the electronic edition. Changes of scribe, marked by the hard copy editors, are retained and marked in the hand attribute of the tag add using the scribal sigla (for which see profiledesc below). Thus, scribal glosses and annotations are tagged add with appropriate attributes. Because of the unsatisfactory nature of Mac Carthy's edition, additions by hands other than the main hand are simply marked with add or addspan and the attribute late. Strictly codicological annotations in the apparatus criticus that do not appear to affect the meaning have been ignored.”
[ed.] [tr.] Hennessy, William M., and B. Mac Carthy [eds. and trs.], Annala Uladh: Annals of Ulster, otherwise Annala Senait, Annals of Senat: a chronicle of Irish affairs from A.D. 431 to A.D. 1540, 4 vols, 1st ed., Dublin, 1887–1901.
Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 2: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 2: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 2: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 2: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 3: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 3: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 3: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 3: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 4: <link>
Secondary sources (select)
Mc Carthy, Daniel P., The Irish annals: their genesis, evolution and history, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2008.
comments: Contents: Chronicles and annals: origins, compilation, taxonomy and nomenclature (p. 1); Witnesses to the annals: the primary manuscripts (18); Annalistic literature (61); World history in Insular chronicles (118); The Iona chronicle (153); The Moville and Clonmacnoise chronicles (168); Liber Cuanach and its descendants (198); The Armagh and Derry chronicles (223); The Connacht and Fermanagh chronicles (245); The Regnal-canon chronicles (271); Final compilation stages (304); Reliable annalistic chronology (342); Epilogue (355); Twelve centuries of Irish chronicling: from Bethlehem to Bundrowes (355); Necessity for a comprehensive analysis of chronicle features (357); Outstanding chronicle compilations (358); Manuscript witnesses to the annals (361); Survey of annalistic verse up to A.D. 1000 (364); The regnal-canon (368); Bibliography (375) and index (393).
