Peritia

The astronomical entries in the Irish annals have been examined in a serious astronomical context by R. R. Newton as part of his research into the accelerations of the earth and moon, and by D. Schove and A. Fletcher as part of the Spectrum of Time project. They have never, however, been fully collated and examined as a whole as this paper undertakes to do. What emerges is a body of records from 442 to 1133 documenting eclipses, comets, aurorae, volcanic dust clouds, and possibly a supernova; from 627 to 1133 all of these records are of observations made in or near Ireland, and most of them are accurate in their chronological and descriptive details. Analysis of the details of these records implies that at least from the seventh to the eleventh centuries careful and sustained observation and recording of astronomical phenomena was conducted in some Irish monasteries and it is clear that the underlying motive was religious and specifically eschatological, viz. to detect the first signs of the end of time as prognosticated in the Book of Revelation. Critical examination of these data throws new light on the circumstances of the Synod of Whitby in 664, establishes the date of the eruption of the volcano Eldgjá in Iceland as springtime of 939, and identifies a possible Western observation of the supernova of 1054.

Source-criticism of the sixth-century entries in AU supports Sharpe’s redating of the meeting at Druim Cett (AU s.a. 574) to c.590. AU’s Druim Cett entry was composed by a twelfth-century compiler as part of a stratum of additions and duplications to fill empty years in AU’s main source, the so-called ‘Chronicle of Ireland’.

Following the models of fifth-century Romano-British writers Hiberno-Latin writers of the sixth and seventh centuries composed prose that exhibits both stressed rhythms of the cursus and quantitative rhythms of clausulae. They composed syllabic verse in which shifts of stressed rhythm articulate structures, and they understood the principles of composition of quantitative verse. Anglo-Latin writers from the seventh century onward also composed such prose and verse. The consistent correctness of their works may issue from tuition by Welsh descendants of Romano-Britons, whose Latin was not influenced by evolving proto-Romance vernaculars, or from intellectual archaeology and book-learning with little exposure to native speakers.

This article considers the evidence of nearly sixty words from sixteen texts for independent knowledge of the Hebrew language among Insular scholars from the seventh century onward.

Several early Irish texts describe monsters that pose a threat to people who enter water. Their names and/or activities sometimes indicate sucking, swallowing and spewing, verbs that could refer to the movement of water, for instance, vortexes and tides. One may, therefore, connect one layer of textual symbolism with the movements of water: monsters partly personify these phenomena. This paper describes the chronological and conceptual development of this personification. Two lines of development are distinguished. The older consists of early Hiberno-Latin texts that use a name from classical mythology (Charybdis) as a technical term for whirlpools, and that do not connect the motif of the swallowing and spewing monsters with the movement of water. The later is represented by Middle-Irish texts and seems to begin with the Old-Irish Echtra Fergusa maic Leiti where a water monster (muirdris) inflates and contracts itself. This symbolism appears to climax in a small late Middle-Irish text that describes a monster in the Indian Ocean that causes the tides. The symbolism in this text has become explicit, and more complex because of external influence.

A statistical analysis of scribal errors presupposed by emendations proposed for the four minims that follow d in f 160v of the text of Beowulf in London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius A. XV, that shows that the reading wundini is by far the most probable. Metrical and philological evidence is considered in this context of the scribe’s practice and pattern of error.

The Collectio canonum hibernensis, as a systematic collection of law, brought with it a development in the Latin understanding of the theology of marriage. By taking certain patristic positions and codifying them it produced a particular understanding of marriage as a state secondary to virginity. This can be seen as a point of transition between the diverse patristic positions and the relatively unified theology of marriage that emerges in classical canon law in the twelfth century.

Past scholars have taught us much about the date, form and authorship of the Collectio canonum hibernensis (CCH), but little about the compilers’ use of their sources. They used at least six Isidorian texts. Various manuscript traditions of Isidore’s writings were drawn on in Ireland and at Insular centres on the Continent. Use of Isidorian texts is more evident in manuscripts of the B recension than of the A recension of the CCH. The more accurate quotation of Isidorian texts in Breton manuscripts shows that there existed a distinct Breton textual tradition among the CCH manuscripts.

An extended review of recent literature on the Book of Kells and related manuscripts, notably on historical, textual, art-historical, decorative, stylistic, liturgical, exegetical and chronological problems. The provenance and date of the Book of Kells and its place in the art and culture of its broader Insular milieu (Ireland, Scotland and Northumbria) is considered in detail.

New architectural interpretations of the use of the terms gremium, porticus, and pinna in ‘De oratorio’ in Hisperica famina, a text that throws valuable light on early medieval church-building in Ireland.

The significance of Clann Cholmáin domination of the medieval Irish midlands has long been recognised by scholars in a variety of fields. This paper documents the nature of that settlement in and around Lough Ennell and Lough Owel and examines the economic and political factors that may have motivated the development of this area. The Clann Cholmáin royal settlement of Cróinis/Dún na Sgiath is then situated within a larger regional and national context in which the development of the local landscape becomes a notable factor in the Uí Néill bid for the control of Ireland.

The identification on archaeological and toponomastic grounds of the modern site of Longfordpass alias Durrihy with that of the early medieval church site of Daire Mór on the medieval Leinster-Munster border.

Publication and commentary on an ogham stone from Clara, Co Kilkenny, with observations on the relationship between church sites and the distribution of oghams.