Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland
© Ronald Black
Adv. MS 84.1.17 OUTER COVER OF Adv. MS 72.1.27.
Further description: Mackinnon, p.57; Mackechnie, p.167.
?12th cent. Vellum 2 ff. Folio, 27 × 18-19.5 cms. Part of the same missal as Adv.MS.84.1.18. From the ?16th cent. to 1970 it was the inner cover of NLS Adv.MS.72.1.27, a Gaelic medical manuscript. It consists of two separate leaves, perhaps originally conjugate. A large rectangular portion has been cut from f. 1, and a strip has been shaved from the inner side of f. 2, but there is a little severe staining except at top and bottom, and most of the surviving text is quite legible. Formerly folded at the bottom, both leaves have been pressed flat and repaired in placed by lamination. With the manuscript is a copy of typescript notes (2 ff. ) by Mgr. David McRoberts, dated 25 February 1969. According to these, palaeographical evidence suggests that Adv.MS.84.1.17-18 were written in the late 12th cent. in the Benedictine monastery of Iona. The text is in Latin in two columns, in a primitive Gothic book hand with strong insular tendencies. It consists of portions of the Temporale. There is some rubrication in red on f. 1. “In my defence” and “finit” appear more than once in a 16th-cent. hand at f. 2v. Foliation modern.
f.
1 Part of Mass of Palm Sunday: Gradual, Hymn of Blessing of the Palms, and Proper, ending in the Passion (Matt. Xxvi, 1-25).
2 Part of Mass of Tuesday in Holy Week : the Passion (Mark xiv, 19 – xv, 1).
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).