Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in National Library of Ireland
G 531
BETHU PHÁTRUIC (FRAGMENT)
15th cent. [?]. Vellum. 25.5 X 19-19.5 cm. A bifolium numbered ‘.fo. 124’ and ‘Fo 127’. Two paginations also evident: (a) 157-8, 161-2; (b) 98-9 (cancelled), 102-3 (altered to 161-2). Once part of Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson B 512, coming between what are now ff. 6 and 7 of that manuscript (cf. R. I. Best, ZCP 17 (1927) 393). No scribal signature.
Foliation (if correct) suggests that lacuna (see below) consists of contents of one central bifolium which may have lost a leaf before later paginations were effected. Stab-holes. Ruled in dry point with marginal prickings; 41 lines. Double columns. Initials on f. 124 coloured in red and yellow; that of chapter-heading f. 124 d and those on f. 127 in dark grey. Latin text (framed in red on f. 124) in larger script. Chapter headings (framed in red) on outer margins of f. 124 only partly legible due to cropping. Small, oval-shaped hole (2.5 X 1.5 cm) in f. 127, extending from middle of upper margin to end of lines 1-2 of col. a, and to beginning of lines 1-2 of col. d; patched and stitched prior to ruling and writing.
Jottings: (a) 124 v, lower margin, inverted. ‘Round is my ring and hath noe end / Soe is my love unto my frind [sic].’ (b) 127 v, lower margin, inverted. ‘To all high and pety constabls / To all high and pety.’
Contained in cloth folder with description in hand of David Greene on NLI notepaper attached inside cover. Manuscript number and ‘St. Patrick’s Purgatory’ in gold on spine. NLI stamp, with manuscript number in ink, inside front cover. Acquired by NLI in 1941: see Irish Press 30 July 1941, 5; Bodleian Library Record 2 (1941-9) 2-3; L. Bieler, Codices Patriciani Latini (Dublin 1942) xi n., 36-7; NLI Report of the Council of Trustees for 1945-6, 8. Fully described and contents published by K. Mulchrone in Galway Arch. and Hist. Soc. Jn. 20 (1942) 39-53.
Contains two fragments of Vita Tripartita. Beg. (f. 124 a) ibe Miss. Ut ipse dicit in libro epistolarum inquiens. Breaks off with folio Alaili tan do Patraic ina cotlud coro and chapter heading ‘De Satana temptatione’. Resumes (f. 127 a) O ro chomaicsigestar dano solomain na Casc. Breaks off with folio Attomriug neurt gene Crist conabath.