Peritia

Proceeding from internal evidence the editor reconstructs texts of poems in the Book of Cerne, hexasyllabic, heptasyllabic, octosyllabic, hendecasyllabic, and infers from prosodic features similar to those of Old-Irish verse that all were composed in Ireland during the seventh century.

Diplomatic transcripts of hitherto unpublished texts of Ailerán the Wise, Canon euangeliorum from four manuscripts: London, British Library, Additional 22398, s. ix, Poitou; London, British Library, Additional 19723, s. x, perhaps north-western France; Edinburgh, University Library, ms 12, s. x; and Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, ms C 78.

From two Dublin manuscripts, one of the fourteenth century and another of the fifteenth, an edition, translation, and analysis of the thirteenth-century prologue to the ‘Vita sancti Abbani’ in the Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae reveals an array of compositional techniques—prose rhythm, parallel and chiastic statement and restatement, infixed numerical values of names, and recurrence of words at points fixed by arithmetic ratios—that demonstrate eloquently the survival of a tradition of thought and composition from the beginnings of Hiberno-Latin literature beyond the Norman conquest of Ireland.

This article presents texts of Vita Sancti Gundleii § 11 edited from London, British Library, ms Cotton Vespasian A.XIV and ms Cotton Titus D.XXII, and Vita Sancti Iltuti Prologue and § 7 edited from ms Cotton Vespasian A.XIV. These three passages, which discuss education and composition both verbal and architectural, offer detailed accounts of aesthetic theory as understood and practised among the Welsh during the twelfth century.

An examination of the image of adornment in Aldhelm’s De virginitate, detailing the influence of Cyprian, an important transmitter of patristic thinking on the subject. Aldhelm transforms the image from a purely physical idea to a spiritual one, seeing it as a symbol of inner virginity.

Aldhelm’s De virginitate was the major product of his scholarly energies. In it Aldhelm, in a fixation on virginity as the means of living on earth the angelic life, moved beyond simple sexual rigorism to a radical exaltation of the preservation of physical virginity through the advocacy of both castration and suicide. It is further argued that the prime motivating factor in Aldhelm’s doing so was his desire to establish, for his Anglo-Saxon audience, a new paradigm of a christianised heroic ideal for both male and female, a way of living a truly christian life in terms commensurate with the violent norms of the barbaric heroic code.

The Anglo-Saxon monastery of Mag nEó in Connacht was founded in the aftermath of the synod of Whitby. An examination of the known sources for the early history of the community, its motivations and contacts, may serve as a case-study of an Anglo-Saxon presence in Ireland.

This paper presents a critical edition (with introduction, translation, and commentary) of the Middle-Irish poem Mide Maigen Clainne Cuind, which can be dated c.1030×1106 on internal evidence.

This paper deals with the historical evidence for political ties between north Wales, Ireland (especially Dublin) and the Scottish Isles in the pre-twelfth century Viking Age. Selected aspects of the relationship in the eleventh century, already illuminated in various degrees by recent scholarship, are reviewed. The position before the eleventh century, which has received comparatively less attention of late, is here the subject of detailed study.

An interdisciplinary note, showing how specialists in late antique Britain have preserved Athanasius’ claim of a British presence at the council of Serdica (ad 343) against all other evidence and without reference to other early church scholarship.

The modern view of marriage in early Ireland has been drastically changed by recent work, but much remains to be done in this field. From an examination of books 45 and 46 of the Collectio canonum hibernensis, for example, we can deduce what were the policies and attitudes on the part of the church which must have influenced native Irish laws. The provisions concerned basically conform to the continental norm in moral matters, but as regards the legal dimension, especially where property is involved, they tend to adopt the provisions of native laws. Traces of Roman law, which Ó Corráin proposed to see in Cáin lánamna, are not obvious. Moreover, though the Hibernensis and Cáin lánamna do not differ in every respect, their dissimilar natures cannot be overlooked. In conclusion, it will be argued that the success of the church was not so total by the early eighth century as Ó Corráin maintained.

A discussion of the newly discovered commentary on the Apocalypse in Cambridge, University Library, Dd X 16 (s. x, probably of Breton provenance) and a comparison of its text with that of the Reference bible (c.ad 750). Three extensive passages of both texts are cited as the basis for comparison. In addition, there is a general discussion of commentaries on the Apocalypse and of the possible sources of the Cambridge commentary.

The term sailm escaine (psalms of malediction) refers to a cursus of twenty psalms, chanted one per day for nearly three weeks as a way of consigning a malefactor to disgrace, short life, and eternal damnation. In form and intent, this imprecatory ritual is similar to the one prescribed for lawful satire in that it provides ample opportunity for the intended victim to agree to a settlement before the rite is brought to completion.

The Corpus missal is important for an understanding of the Irish church on the eve of the twelfth-century reform. This paper seeks to support by other evidence the eleventh-century dating of Gwynn and others. Certain textual evidence indicates an early but ill-defined date. By reference to the chronological evolution of a particular liturgical practice a terminus post quem is determined. Then, by showing that this practice is out of line with an avowed aim of the twelfth-century reform and specifically contradicts what the reforming bishop Gille of Limerick prescribes, a terminus ante quem, is established.

The history of medieval Irish women is elusive, despite a rich variety of textual sources. These are often normative rather than descriptive and are a predominantly male clerical product. This paper will examine the dossiers of two female saints, both from Co Cork. It will ask whether we can identify female aspirations and female voices in the literary celebration of their careers. Are they models of female empowerment or do their representations ultimately support male power structures.

In the legal tract, Críth gablach, some technical terms that have to do with early medieval farming and wood-working—eipit, dias fidchrann—and with the slaughtering of pigs paid in render to lords—cuts called tarr and tinne—are difficult to define exactly. Here an attempt is made to explain them more precisely.

This article is an in-depth discussion of the developments in Irish brooch design from the eighth to the twelfth century with particular emphasis on the dating, cultural origin and decoration of brooches of the Viking Age.

This article analyses the design of a stone from Trecastle, now in the British Museum, identifying three sculptured scenes as illustrations of Genesis 6–9, Exodus 14–16 and Numbers 21, and 1 Samuel 17, in a chronologically and typologically coherent scheme that represents both covenant and ecclesiastical orders of deacon, priest, and bishop.

A report on an unrecorded ogam inscription at Ballintaggart, parish of Garfinny, near Dingle, Co Kerry, together with a review of nineteenth-century antiquarian observations on the site and its ogam stones. There is evidence that this is an early medieval ecclesiastical site.

Imirce Ciaráin, hitherto regarded as the title of a lost voyage tale, is here identified as the proper name of a manuscript.