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Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Irish Language in the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique / Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België

10 KBR MS 6131-33

‘Leabhor Inghine Í Dhomhnaill’; Bardic Poems ; Eachtra Chonaill Gulban

Summary particulars

(to follow)

Previous descriptions: K. Meyer, ‘A collection of poems on the O’Donnells’, Ériu 4 (1910), 183-90; P. Walsh, ‘The Book of O’Donnell’s Daughter’, Irish men of learning. Studies by Father Paul Walsh edited by Colm O Lochlainn (Dublin 1947), 179-205.

Index of contents

Outside front cover. Three two-line inscriptions as follows (upper half): (i) ‘Leabh or […]hine Dhómhnaill / Liber poematum oDonell[i (?)]’; (ii) ‘Leabhar inghine í Dhomhnaill/ Liber Poematum ó Donellij’; (iii) ‘Leabhar Inghine Í Dhomhnaill / L[…] Poematum o Donellij’. (Cf. Walsh, Irish men of learning 193.) Some figures, apparently dates, are partially discernible with assistance of ultra-violet in the area of the second and third entries as follows: (ii) written above ‘Liber’: ‘(?)1626’ (fourth digit alone certain); (iii) written below ‘Poematum’: ‘c. 1625 [third digit alone certain], [?] 1555 [final three digits uncertain]’, but these entries have been deliberately obscured and may predate use of the vellum for the purpose of binding.

Inside front cover. Jottings, some written over, in various hands and legible in part only, and probationes pennae, of which following to be noted. (Written from top) (a) ‘Ihesus Maria deo gratias dauid C … est possessor’; (b) (written below ‘dauid’ and struck through) ‘Cionnas ticc / ere gan Aodh’; (c) ‘iéSuS Cia an … ar Emanuel’; (d) ‘damadh misi an sgolaidhi / gerbam treabar togh aidhe / ni tiubroinn mnaoi shuim no duim / gersam diolta dfoghlaim / damadh misi an sccolaidhi’; (e) ‘Mo …s… hat’; (f) ‘dfhios an fó an pend no an dercc’; (g) ‘Madamoyeselle’. (From the bottom): (h) ‘No(t)a: my not brder (?) taud that/ inmy most’ (?); (i) ‘in my most’; (j) (vertical) ‘deus meus’; (k) ‘dauid macnie / dellude unto me / to shillings’ (?). (Transcriptions here given differ in several details from Walsh, Irish men of learning, 193.)

[i] Blank.

1r. ‘Fearghal óg Mhac an Bhaird cc.’ (ascription added). Teasda Eire san Easbainn. 69 qq. Ends f. 3v. (Ed. P. A. Breatnach, ‘Marbhna Aodha Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill († 1602)’ Éigse 15/1 (1973), 31-50.)

4rv. Blank.

5r. ‘Fergal og Mhac an Bhaird cc.’ (ascription added). Turnamh dothchais dith muirne. 35 qq. (Copy not consulted for edition by L. MacCionnaith, Dioghluim Dána (Baile Átha Cliath 1938), no. 121.)

6v. Blank.

7r. ‘O hEodhasa cc. .i. Eochaidh’ (ascription added). Ni comhthrom cogadh Banbha. 54 qq. (Q. 24 added later at f. 7v, lower margin; q. 54 separated by space from preceding.) Ends f. 9r 10.

9r. ‘Fearghal Og Mac an Baird cc.’ (ascription added).Truagh liom Maire agas Mairghreg. 15 qq. (Ed. P. Walsh, Beatha Aodha Ruaidh, 2 vols., ITS 42, 45 (London 1948-57), II 126 ff.; O. Bergin, Irish bardic poetry, ed. D. Greene & F. Kelly (Dublin 1970), 46-48 (no. 8).)

10r. ‘O hEodhusa cc.’ (ascription added). Ionmholta malairt bhisigh. 12 qq. (Q. 9cd entered later.) (Ed. Bergin, Irish bardic poetry, no. 30.)

10v. ‘Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird cc.’ (ascription added).Diomdhach me don mhacdhacht riogh. 23 qq. (Ed. Walsh, Beatha Aodha Ruaidh II, 104-17.)

11v. ‘Tadg (ms ‘tardg’) Dall cc.’ (ascription added). Maighean dioghla Druim Lighean. 40 qq. Ends f. 13r 8. (Copy not consulted for edition by E. Knott, The bardic poems of Tadhg Dall Ó Huiginn, 2vols. (London 1922), no. 4.)

13r m. ‘Concubar Ruadh Mhac an Bhaird cecinit.’ Cionnas tig Éire gan Aodh. 50 qq. (Ed. R. A. Breatnach & P. A. Breatnach, ‘Elegy of Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill (d. 1505)’, Éigse 35 (2005), 27-52.)

15v. ‘Marbnaidh Domnuill meic Toirdealboigh an Fiona annso o Eoghan Mac an Báird’ (heading added). Lesg an aghuidhsi ar Eas Ruaidh. 34 qq. (Collated for edition by L. McKenna, ‘Some Irish bardic poems, XCIV’, Studies 39 (1950), 187-92.) Another copy 6, f. 26r.

17r. ‘In Dei nomine amen’ / ‘In fear ceadna’ (crossed out) / ‘Fergal Og Mac an Bhaird cc.’ (headings added, various hands). Ionnmhas ollaimh onoir riogh. 32 qq. Ends f. 18r 16. (Ed. L. McKenna, ‘Some Irish bardic poems, C’, Studies 41 (1952), 99-104.)

18r i. ‘Eogan Ruadh Mac an Baird cc.’ (ascription added). Rob soraidh t’eachtra a Aodh Ruaidh. 25 qq. (Q. 7 added later at f. 18v, top margin.) (Copy not consulted for edition by Bergin, Irish bardic poetry, no. 3.)

19v. ‘Giolla Brighde Ua hEogusa cc.’ (ascription added). Ataim ionchora re hAodh. 11 qq. (Ed. Walsh, Beatha Aodha Ruaidh II, 98-103.)

20r. ‘Ferghal Og Mac an Bhaird cc.’ (ascription added). Begins A dúin tios ata at énor. 2 qq. (4 ll.) struck through (false start). (L. 5) Fagas furtacht don tír thúaidh. 52 qq. (Copy not consulted for edition by MacCionnaith, Dioghluim dána, no. 93.)

22r. ‘Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Vháird’ (ascription added). Truagh do chor a chroidhe tim. 17 qq. Ends f. 22v. (Ed. Bergin, Irish bardic poetry, 35-37 (no. 4) [qq. 1-16 only]; P. A. Breatnach, ‘Varia 2’, Éigse 36 (2008), 140-42 [= q. 17].)

22v 7. ‘An tEoghan ceadna’ (ascription added). A bhean fuair faill ar an bhfeart. 39 qq. Ends f. 24r 3. (Ed. E. Knott, ‘Mac an Bhaird’s elegy on the Ulster lords’, Celtica 5 (1960), 161-71.)

24r 4. Ionmholta an t-óglach nach diongnadh. 25 qq. (Ed. Pól Breathnach, ‘Interpretanda’ Irisleabhar Muighe Nuadhat (1931), 43-6.)

25r 1. ‘Eocchan Ruadh cc.’ (ascription added). Ionmhuin sgribhionn sgaoilter sonn. 4 qq. (Ed. P. Walsh, Irish men of learning (Dublin 1947), 184-5.) Remainder of page blank.

25v. ‘Eoghan Ruadh cc. (added later: ut videtur [crossed out] mur shaoilim)’ (heading added). Cia re bfailtigh fían Eirne. 13 qq. (Ed. Ó Raghallaigh , Duanta Eoghain Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird (Gaillimh 1930), 58f.; cf. P. A. Breatnach, ‘The Book of the O’Conor Don and the manuscripts of St Anthony’s College, Louvain’, in The Book of the O’Conor Don. Essays on an Irish manuscript, ed. P. Ó Macháin (Dublin 2010), 102-22 (114).)

26r. A bhraighe ata a ttor Lunndan. 25 qq. Followed by appendix beg. Mo an príosún fós ina bfuil · Inghion riogh fhreimhe Daluigh. 5 qq. Ends f. 27r 5. (Copy not consulted for edition by MacCionnaith, Dioghluim dána, no. 63.)

27r 6. Mairg as bráighe ar mhacruidh Murbhuigh. 23 qq. Scribe supplies correction at q. 14b. (Copy not consulted for edition by L. McKenna, Aithdioghluim dána, 2 vols., ITS 37, 40 (Dublin 1939-40), no. 25.)

28r. ‘Dán do rinniodh d’iarla Tíre Conuill an tráth tug umhlacht do choróin Shaxan ar tús / Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird do rinne ⁊ do sgríobh an dán so’ (heading added). Dána an turus trialltar sonn. 24½ qq. Qq. 7-8 underlined and repeated as qq. 14-15; space left for second couplet of q. 16. Ends f. 28v 20. For commentary on status of this copy see P. A. Breatnach, ‘A poet’s autograph in the Book of O’Donnell’s Daughter’, in W. Bisang & M. G. Schmidt, Philologica et linguistica. Historia, pluralitas, universitas (Festschrift Helmut Humbach) (Trier 2001), 377-83.) (Copy not consulted for edition by Bergin, Irish bardic poetry, no. 2.)

29r. ‘Eoghan Ruadh cc.’ Idir gach obair sgriobhas. 13 qq. (incomplete). Q. 1 centered on page; variant version of q. 3 (first couplet) supplied by scribe in right margin. Text followed after space by note at foot of page: ‘leigthear ionad fa chomair na coda oile don dhán soin tuas’. For notice of this copy with citations, see P. A. Breatnach, ‘Scríbhinní i láimh Eoghain Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird’, Éigse 36 (2008), 43-62 (54-56, 61-62).

Ff. 29v - 31v. Blank.

32r. Maith an sealadh fuair Éire. 91 qq. Variant version of q. 18d supplied by scribe at f. 32v 8, right margin. Ends f. 35r 15. (Ed. Ó Raghallaigh, Duanta Eoghain Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird, 170-205.) For notice of this copy with citations, see Breatnach, ‘Scríbhinní i láimh Eoghain Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird’, 57-59, 62.

35r m. ‘Gilla Brighde Mac Con Midhe.’ Conall cuingidh cloinne Neill · mac dob uaisle don airdfhreimh. 32 qq. (incomplete with spaces left for missing quatrains (between 7-8, 12-13), couplets (8cd, 20cd, 26ab, 30cd), and lines or parts of lines (7b, 17d, 19b, 22 b, 24a). Orthographical corrections entered by different hand passim. Ends f. 36r. (Copy collated for edition by N. Williams, The poems of Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe, ITS 51 (Dublin 1980), 30-39 (no. 3).)

36r i. ‘Mac Con Midhe .i. Brian Ruadh .cc.’ Imdha uirruim ag Ulltaibh. 37 qq. Lines omitted at 5b, 11d, 33b later supplied by different hand. Ends f. 37v m; remainder blank. (Copy not consulted for diplomatic edition by J. G. O’Keeffe, ‘Poems on the O’Donnells (1200-1600)’, Irish Texts 2 (1931) 35-40 (no. 8).)

38r. ‘Rúaidhri Ruadh Ó hUiginn cc./ dua nDomnuill Toirrdelbach an Fíona, a dég 1423.’ Fulang anróidh adbbhar sóidh. 44 qq. Ends f. 39v i. (Ed. P. A. Breatnach, ‘An address to Toirdhealbhach an Fhíona Ó Domhnaill’, Celtica 28 (2016), 55-88.)

40r. Tuile ar ttrághadh trén Gaoidheal. 40 qq. Ends f. 41v m. (Ed. L. McKenna, Studies 39 (1950), 437-44.)

42r. ‘Eoghan Rúadh Mac an Bhaird .cc-.’ Anocht as úaigneach Éire · do bheir fógra a fírfhréimhe. 28 qq. Interlinear and marginal corrections and alternative readings supplied in hand of text using different ink. Ends f. 42v i. (Ed. Walsh, Beatha Aodha Ruaidh II, 138-48.)

43r. ‘Toirrdhealbhach Ua Conchabhair.’ Dursan do chás a chríoch Bhreagh. 41 qq. Ends f. 44r m, remainder blank.

44v - 60r. Blank.

60v. Mochean do theacht a chláirseach. 14 qq. (Ed. [Breathnach], ‘Interpretanda’, 39-40.)

61r. Cia misi a mhic an Chalbhaigh. 16 qq. Ends f. 61v 4, remainder blank. (Ed. P. A. Breatnach, Celtica 21 (1990), 28-37.)

62r - 62v. Blank.

74r. [EACHTRA CHONUILL GULBAN]. Begins Baoí rí amhra for Érind .i. Níall Náoighiallach mhac Eachdach Muighmedhoin mic Muireadaigh Thirigh. As í roba baincheile don righsin etc. Breaks off f. 86r m, Ro aisnedset na teachta na haitescca sin Cuirc do Chonall. Ot chualaidh Conall an comradh sin ros lion fearg & luinne anffoill e. Remainder blank. (Ed. G. Lehmacher, ZCP 14 (1923), 212-69.) On the status of this copy in the manuscript, see P. A. Breatnach, ‘Repertoria manuscriptorum Collegii S. Antonii’ in Léann lámhscríbhinní Lobháin. The Louvain manuscript heritage, ed. P. A. Breatnach, C. Breatnach, M. Ní Úrdail, Éigse Publications 1 (Dublin 2007), 3-20 (17-20).)

86v - 87v. Blank.

126r. ‘O Dálaigh Fionn.’ Heading followed by another in a different hand, viz. ‘Tadg Óg Ó hUigind cc.’ Mairg mheallus muirn an tshaoghuil. 39 qq. Ends f. 127r 10. (Copy not consulted for edition by MacCionnaith, Dioghluim dána, no. 37.)

127r m. Mairg íarus iomláoid cainte. 20 qq. Ends f. 127v 22. (Copy not consulted for edition by L. McKenna, Aithdioghluim dána, no. 74.)

127v i. ‘Maol Eachluínn O hUiginn.’ Each gan aradhuin an fhearg. 4 qq. (Incomplete = qq. 1, 2, 3, 5 of edition by MacCionnaith, Dioghluim dána, no. 88.)

128 rv. Blank.

129r. ‘Fear Flatha O Gnimh cc.’ Mo truaighe mar ataid Gaoidhil. 22 qq. Ends f. 129v m. Remainder blank. (Copy not consulted for edition by T. F. O’Rahilly, Measgra dánta II (An dara cóiriú, Corcaigh 1977), no. 54.)

130r - 145v. Blank (save for scribbling at f. 145r ).

146r. ‘Tadhg Dall O hUiginn cc.’ (ascription added). Dfior cogoidh comailtear siothchain. 60 qq. (Copy not consulted for edition by Knott, The bardic poems of Tadhg Dall Ó Huiginn, no. 16; order of qq. is 1-53 followed by 66-71, followed by 54; qq. 55-65 absent.)

148r. ‘Rulla a bhfuil do duanuibh ⁊ dantuibh reamhad sa leabharsa.’ Partial list of poems in volume, with attributions and dates assigned. In two parts, (i) ll. 1-26, last 4 ll. crossed out, followed by space; (ii) 8 ll. (change of hand from l. 6). (Printed by Walsh, Irish men of learning, 201-3.)

149r. ‘Eogan Ruadh Ruadh (sic) mac Uilliaim [space left here] Mic an Bhaird’ (heading added). Glac a chompáin comhairle · o Bhearnard an t-ab naomhtha. 117 couplets in sections of irregular length with numbering of sections entered in left margins by scribe. (Ed. C. Mhág Craith,Dán na mBráthar Mionúr, 2 vols. (Baile Átha Cliath 1967-80), no. 14; shown by editor to be based on Latin prose treatise by St Bernard, cf. ibid. II, 138-41.)

151rv Blank.

152r. Various names and notes written from top, others from bottom, of which following may be noted. (From top) These in a single hand in two columns: (a) (left col.) ‘Johne Ynell / nota of [refers perhaps to (b)]; (b) (right col.) ‘Done (?) [space approx. one line] Sorle mc donnell/ Captin of Muskedtre/ the best of the Irish/ wither the will or nott/ withness my hand / John mc donell / and so he shall rain/ till deth’. (Cf. Walsh, loc. cit.). (c) (Left col.) ‘Memorand: that 8 3 [figures separated by slash] (?)’; / (d) (left col.) ‘John Yneill’; (e) ‘beannacht’. (From bottom) (f) ‘Colleg [space] tadg o cleirigh do [?] sgriob no tadg O duibheanaigh.’ (For persons in (a), (b), (d), cf. Walsh, Irish men of learning, 194 n. (Concerning the names in (f), Walsh, Irish men of learning, remarks as follows (p. 187): ‘This is not a signature. The alternative shows that it represents the opinion of some person regarding the identity of one writer in the volume’; and again (ibid.), ‘It would be interesting if this should be a reference to Michael O Clérigh, whose name before he became a friar was Tadhg.’ For identification of Ó Cléirigh’s hand in this volume, see P. A. Breatnach, ‘A poet’s autograph in the Book of O’Donnell’s Daughter’, 144. The second name in the note recurs on the inside back cover in item (c).)

152v - 153v. Blank.

Inside back cover. Jottings and other matter including probationes pennae. (From top) (a) ‘doilig’; (b) (large lettering) ‘Leabhor inghine í domhnaill’; (c) copy oflaisser passer in English for ‘Tig Odoueney’ [i.e. Tadg O Duibheanaigh mentioned first endpaper item (f)], dated ‘Brussell the xiii day of september / 16122’, ends ‘Senged Salled’ [i.e. signed, sealed] (?) (17 ll.). (This item transcribed by Walsh ibid.,186-87. Dr M. Wittek (KBR) informs me that the third digit in this item may reflect administrative usage as a mark of authenticity.) (d) Various, including ‘The condition of this obligation is such that yf’; (e) Sa brot sin nir coir go cur etc.’ 1 q. (printed by Walsh, ibid. 194; cf. ibid. 197).