Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in National Library of Ireland
G 49
Eochair-sgiath an Aifrinn
17th cent. Paper. 26 × 19 cms. Pp. ii + 112. The scribe is Seaán mhac Torna uí Mhaoilchonaire (scribal signatures on title-page and p. 16) who, a contemporary of Keating, was a prolific and accurate scribe of his work (see FFE, ii ed. Dinneen, TBBh ed. Bergin). Ó Maoilchonaire transcribed the present text in the year 1657 beginning on the 8th August (title-page) and finishing on the 11th September (p. 113) and his place of writing was a Muigh an Ratha a Laoighis uí Mhordha (title page and p. 113). He transcribed it for the benefit of Domhnall mhac Uaithne uí Chearbhaill (title-page). The scribe supplies comments and textual references in Latin in the margins, and in one place (p. 33) he gives textual references in Irish. The pagination is scribal but in some cases the numbers have been partly (pp. 4, 6, 7, etc.) or wholly (pp. 8, 12 etc.) cut away, apparently when the edges were trimmed at the binding. Some initial and end letters on the outside margins (pp. 17, 18, 21, etc.) and some of the catchwords (pp. 2, 4, 10 etc.) were also cropped. There is one leaf missing in the ms., i.e. scribal pp. 111-112 (corresponding to pp. 122-124 of O'Brien's ed., 1898). Some additions, corrections, glosses and translations appear here and there in the ms. in a later unidentified hand. The last page, which is otherwise blank, contains a floral design.
The ms. is bound in half-leather with the title Defense of the Mass : Dr. Geffrey Keating in ink on the front cover. Three of the four blank pages which were inserted by the binder have been torn away. The ms. was in the possession of Edw. O'Reilly — no. 254 in his collection but not catalogued in his ms. cat., R.I.A. 23 H 1 — before it became no. 10275 in the Phillipps Mss.
Page
i Title-page : Tionnsgantor annso an ainm na Tríonnóide Ronaomtho Eochair Sgiath an Aithfrinn, do réir an doctúra thromdha, thábhach- tuigh, dhíadha, disccreidigh .i. an fhlaith oirrdheirc fhoghlumtha, Seathrún Kéitinn, Sagart, et doctúir dearsgaighthe san diadhacht, an tí sa anam go bfhagha trócaire Dé. Amén.
Atá an leabhorso aga thosughadh chum a sgríobhtha, chum sochair Dhomhnuill mheic Uaithne uí Chearbhaill, lé Seaán mhac Torna uí Mhaoilchonaire an tochtmhadh la do mhí August a Muigh an Ratha, a Laoighis uí Mhordha. Anno Domini. 1657.
ii Blank except for an erasure.
1 Séathrún Céitinn. EOCHAIR-SGIATH an AIFRINN. Preface, p. 1. Text, p. 17. Complete copy except for the loss of leaf, i.e. pp. III-112 (corresponding to pp. 122-124, ed. O'Brien, 1898). Ends p. 113 followed by Finis 11° Septembris. 1657. a moigh an Rátha. [L]aus omnipotenti Deo, deiparaeque Virgini Mariae. Amen.