Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland
© Ronald Black, 2011
Adv. MS 72.1.19
(Gaelic MS.XIX). MYTHOLOGICAL VERSE
Mackinnon, pp.136, 200, 204; Mackechnie, p.159.
14–15th cent. Vellum. 6 ff. Folio, 29 × 21 cms. A gathering; middle bifolium missing. Beautifully written by a single hand, large with distinctive “g”, strongly seriffed. Each poem begins with a large illuminated capital, and there is much decoration besides; colouring is red. In double columns. Marginalia in later hands: “Amen dico vobis” (3r); “olc an litir sin agad a Eogain” (5v, of Adv.MS.72.1.2, f. 86v); “Ag so leabar………Briain(?) ull(?)”. Kilbride no.21 by Major MacLachlan’s enumeration (“21 Poetry”, f. 1r). No.15 by Hugh Kerr’s. The latter’s name or initials appear on every leaf. Many corners are perished. Ff. 1r and 6v are largely illegible due to severe staining and rubbing, and the manuscript as a whole has suffered from damp-staining. Bound by a thong. 18th-century pagination in ink, added below in brackets; modern foliation.
f.
1 r(1)a1 About 25 qq., acephalous and largely illegible.
1 r(1)b m Mairt i Mag Turead (trelma), 19 qq. Ascription and qq. 1–8 largely illegible; Cf. dúnadh, also Uí Maine 174v.a.
1 v(2)a i Fland Mainistreach. Luid Iason ‘na luing loir, 102 qq. On the destruction of Troy. See ZCP 28, p.198.
3 v(6)a1 Ardri dár gabh Erind uill, 22 qq. Complete. Ed. P. Ó Macháin, Éigse 21 (1986) 53-65.
4 r(7)a1 [Gilla na Naemh Ó Duind.] Poem beg. acephalous eich Eachach don Mhumhuin mhoir, 467 lines. Dindshenchas. Ascription supplied in last verse; the first line, Éiriu iarthur talman toirthigh, is then given. Many alternative distiches and quatrains are embodied in the text. Cf. Adv.MS.72.1.42, f. 15r; Uí Maine 172r.
6 r(11)b4 Ceithri coimpertta caemha, 31 qq. On procreation. Largely illegible from q. 12b. Cf. Uí Maine 103v.b.
6 v(12)b17 Poem of 9 qq., beg. A….as….., largely illegible.