Description of manuscript, by Padraig de Brun and Nessa Ní Shéaghdha // Nessa bean Ui Dheorain, 1980.
Chronicum Scotorum
18th Cent. Vellum. 19.5 X 16.5 cms. Ff. 55 (paginated in later ink (on rectos only) 1 - 92, with 5 unpaginated leaves and pp. [104-8] numbered from 93 onwards in error; last leaf unnumbered. Scribe: Micheál mac Peadair Í. Longáin at Baile Í Dhonnchadha [near Glin, Co. Limerick] in 1711 (when the scribe was in his eighteenth year) from an exemplar lent him by his friend, Thomas son of the knight of Glin (p. 109 ; date altered to 1611 by a later hand).
Bound in boards with leather spine and attaching straps; remains of earlier vellum cover bound in at end. Backing of both covers contains fragmentary printed and manuscript material in Irish and English; name ‘Laurence Shea’ occurs at front, while that at back contains 18 lines of Irish, each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet, the last line including the name ‘Seaghan [Ó] Da [ . . . ]’ (?). Labelled ‘201’ (cancelled) on spine and marked ‘190/Ireland/MSS/Chronicum Scotorum’ in pencil on recto of front endpaper (verso blank); ‘D8’ in pencil on upper righthand corner of p. 1. Bookplates inside front cover: (1) ‘From the Library/of the/ Earl of Ashburnham/Appendix No. [ccl in purple pencil]/May 1897./ [10 in purple pencil.]’
Royal Irish Academy MSS 23 0 8 (dated 1830) and 23 0 30 (1842), transcribed in Cork by Micheál mac Peadair Í. Longáin's grandchildren, derive directly from this manuscript, as do apparently all the later extant copies of Chronicum Scotorum. On p. 133 of MS 23 0 30 it is stated by Pól Ó Longain, brother of the Scribe of manuscript, that the exemplar [i.e., the present manuscript] passed at some time out of the family's possession into that of Donnehadh Ó Floinn of Cork city, whose son of the same name lent it to them for copying (presumably on his father's death in 1830).
As is clear from one of the bookplates (see above), the manuscript later came to be included in the ‘appendix’ to the Earl of Ashburnham's collection. This appendix of 250 manuscripts represents single purchases by Ashburnham and was catalogued in 1861 (catalogue privately printed; abridged in Hist: MSS Comm., 8th report, app. iii (1881) 99 - 110). These manuscripts were sold privately to Henry Yates Thompson in May 1897 (see S. de Ricci, English collectors of books & manuscripts (1530 - 1930) and their marks of ownership (Cambridge 1930) 134). Yates Thompson in turn sold most of them at Sothebys in May 1899 (ibid., 169), the present volume (lot 133) being bought by Quaritch for £1-11-0 (marked copy of Sothebys' sale-catalogue of 1 May 1899 in British Library Reference Library). Quaritch offered it for sale in October of the same year for £5-5-0 (catalogue of October 1899, no. 3130). Messrs Quaritch have no records of the purchaser on this occasion and the subsequent history of the manuscript has not been traced. A companion volume (containing the text of Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh in the Ashburnham appendix and in the Sotheby and Quaritch catalogues referred to, and also connected with the Ó Longáin family, was bought by R.A.S. Macalister and is now MS 24 C 60 in the library of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA Cat., 3218-19). Text begins on p. 1, with chasm after p. 92. Followed (p. 109 ) by colophon: Iar na scorbadh limsa Micheal mac Peadair Srs Longain as priomhlabhar ciennosda eclhon anala Chana mc N. no in Chronicum Scotorum do thug mo charmit dhilis dom air iaosacht se sin Tomas mc Ridire in ghleanda san mbliadhain 1611 altered from 1 7 11 ucus inter XUiii mbleadhna dom aois fein i mBaile i Dhonchada air bruach na Sionda sreathuaithue Oret pro scriptore lector ‘Written by , Micheal mac Peadair I. Longain, from the ancient authoritative book, that is the Annals of Clonmacnoise or Chronicum Scotorum, which my dear friend, Thomas son of the knight of Glin, lent me, in the year 1711 and in the 18th year of my own age in Baile I Dhonnchadha by the green-streamed Shannon Oret pro scriptore lector.’
Notes:
In addition to the above description created by Padraig de Brun and Nessa Ní Shéaghdha // Nessa bean Ui Dheorain in the year 1980, the American Irish Historical Society would add the following details from research by Archivist Marcus Lindenburg.
The board of the manuscript is consistent with the feel and appearance of 18th century rope fiber pulp millboard. Its vellum is in generally fine condition, with occasional marks of ink splatters (i.e. p.40) and holes in its final pages.