Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland
© Ronald Black
Adv. MS 84.1.18 OUTER COVER OF Adv. MS 72.1.14.
Further descriptions: Mackinnon, p.49; Mackechnie, p.155.
?12th cent. Vellum. 6 ff. Folio, 30 × 21 cms. From the same source as Adv.MS.84.1.17, i.e. the Temporale of a missal probably written at Iona. From the ?16th cent. to 1970 it was the cover of NLS Adv.MS.72.1.14, a Gaelic medical manuscript. Consists of four separate portions as described below, all formerly folded in various places and now pressed completely flat. Text hand as Adv.MS.84.1.17; all folios bear rubrication in red. Gaelic notes appear in three ?17th cent. hands, mainly in margins and other spaces of f. 5r, as follows.
1 f. 5r, lower margin: (A)n t-athair tareis an mheic, 1 q. Headed “rann”. A neat, confident hand very like that of ?Andrew Beaton at NLS Adv.MS.72.1.29, f. 7r, and probably therefore to be identified with Giolla Ainndreis Dubh who owned NLS Adv.MS.72.1.27 (Adv.MS.84.1.16, note b).
2 f. 5r: beginning of above quatrain repeated; alphabets; “Mise lebar Neall mak Giolla Andris”; “Le / Leabar Neall”; “Bannacht an so o Neall”; “b nill”(?); “lebo” (twice). A much cruder hand, that of Niall, son of Giolla Ainndreis.
3 f. 5r: “leab”; beginning of alphabet, some more of which is at f. 2v. Hand seems identical in character, size and ink to that which appears, equally briefly, at Adv.MS.72.1.10, f. 6v, and Adv.MS.72.1.14, ff. 11r, 12r.
At f. 1r are the date 1667 (in Rev. John Beaton’s hand?) and a calculation. All folios have suffered in some degree from staining and friction. Foliation modern. Present ownership: as Kilbride MSS.
f.
1 Single leaf with strip shaved from inner side, 30 × 19 cms. Most of recto illegible. Contains latter part of the Passion (Luke xxiii, 10-end); remainder of Proper of Mass of Wednesday in Holy Week; Introit and Collect of Mass of Maundy Thursday.
2 Outer portion of a leaf, 30 × 10.5 cms. Part of verso illegible. Contains Proper of Mass of Maundy Thursday from Epistle (1 Cor. xi, 27-end) to Communion.
3 - 4 Bifolium. This formed the outer cover of Adv.MS.72.1.14, and rubbing and staining have rendered ff. 3r and 4v largely illegible. Contains Proper of Good Friday, a continuous text from First Lesson (Hosea) to the Passion (John xviii, 1 xix, 21).
5 - 6 Bifolium. Contains part of Liturgy of Holy Saturday from Exultet to Second Prophecy.
Bibliography:
Holmes, Stephen M. "Catalogue of liturgical books and fragments in Scotland before 1560", Innes Review 62.2 (2011): 127-212, p. 139, no. 18.
Mackechnie, John. Catalogue of Gaelic manuscripts in selected libraries in Great Britain and Ireland. 2 vols (Boston 1973).
Mackinnon, Donald. A descriptive catalogue of Gaelic manuscripts in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh, and elsewhere in Scotland (Edinburgh 1912).