Peritia

Evidence is presented to suggest that the form and vocabulary of the brief biographical note on Willibrord in the Calendar of Willibrord are influenced by Anglo-Saxon and Frankish charters and annalistic writing of Irish origin.

An investigation and a critique of Johannes Herwagen’s attribution, in 1563, of a set of glosses on Bede’s De natura rerum and De temporum ratione to Byrhtferth of Ramsey in the light of recent publications supporting Herwagen’s claim.

Agilbert born in 610 into a Neustrian family influenced by Columbanus, went to southern Ireland where he studied scripture and was ordained bishop. He was a missionary bishop in Wessex c.648-60, when he returned to Francia. He headed the Roman delegation at the synod of Whitby in 664 and ordained Wilfrid priest. Before becoming bishop of Paris in 668, he was also instrumental in Wilfrid’s consecration as bishop, and may have been responsible for Wilfrid’s involvement in the return of the Merovingian royal, Dagobert II, from Ireland to Francia in 676. This paper gives a context for Agilbert’s reported activities and associations in Ireland, England and Francia and concludes that these are plausible within the pluralistic christianity of the seventh century.

An analysis of an eclectic group of five specific attributes of the Virgin Mary in four Old-Irish texts not later than the end of the eighth century: the Old-Irish tract on the Mass in the Stowe Missal, Cain Adomnain, Cu Chuimne’s Hymnum in laudem S. Mariae, and Blathmac’s poems to the Virgin. These texts bear striking similarities to abstract ideas from the East, notably those in the Mariological writings of Proclus, bishop of Constantinople. Here I explicate the unique character of each attribute, beginning with Proclus’ formulation and liturgical use, and compare them to their Irish counterparts. I also discuss how the Irish came to know his writings.

An edition and translation of a late Middle-Irish poem (c. ad 1200) synchronising the Eastern Roman emperors with Irish kings and with important dates in Irish church history, to about ad 750. The poem is almost complete in Dublin, RIA, 1225 olim D ii 1 al. Book of Uí Maine; s. xiv^ex; and there is one other significant but fragmentary witness. It indicates how Irish literati saw their history, what kind of ‘world history’ they taught in medieval schools, and how they constructed that history.

In the Old-Irish tale Feis Tige Becfholtaig, the pragmatic details of the king’s success, marital and martial, are delineated. However, as the goal of the king is Truth or happiness, his worldly conquests, in love or war, cannot exist in isolation. They are part of a whole. His progress towards Wisdom and Truth is indicated by an acallam in which he recognises his reliance on the goddess and the part she plays in bringing things to this pass. However, if he is to be a good king he must not only acknowledge the full Truth or the whole of reality to himself, but make it known to his subjects. This paper examines the incremental fashion in which the king, at first refused and then only partially acknowledged the truth before eventually proclaiming it in full in public.

Evidence is here presented of the practice of gematria, in an anonymous vernacular lyric written in Ireland, evidently in a monastic scriptorium, in the eleventh or twelfth century and preserved uniquely in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 615 (s. xiv/xv).

The essay analyses the prosody of the earliest extant Old-Irish hymn, Brigit be bithmaith, attributed to bishop Ultán moccu Conchobuir of Ard Breccáin near Navan in county Meath, inferring from elements of composition similar to those of the Hiberno-Latin hymn Xpistus in nostra insula a further indication of Ultán’s authorship of that poem.

A brief notice of mss Klosterneuburg, Augustiner-Chorherrenstift, 570 (s. xiv²) and 587 (s. xii²) that contain two new witnesses to Columbanus’ Rules: Regula coenobialis (short recension) and Regula monachorum (ten-chapter version); and of ms Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, theol. lat. qu. 141 (s. xv), which contains a copy of Jonas of Bobbio’s Vita Iohannis.

It is commonly believed that the chronic indigenous violence of early medieval Irish society and the ravages of the Viking wars account for the destruction of most medieval Irish manuscripts. This may not be quite so. Ireland is unlikely to have been more violent than many other European countries that preserve very large numbers of medieval manuscripts. The argument is made here that the loss of much of Ireland’s medieval manuscript heritage was a consequence of English conquest and colonialism in the early-modern period, greatly exacerbated by religious conflict.

The formation of parishes in medieval Ireland, their origin and date, and their relationship toother spatial entities (manor, cantred, túath, lordship, lineage and earlier church estates) are matters that must be tackled by detailed local studies and reconstructions. Críchad in Chaílli, a twelfth-century topographical tract, provides uniquely detailed information on the local kingdom of Fir Maige in Munster, its subdivisions, its lineages, and its churches. This local study of an area that has relatively rich records addresses much wider questions: the túath and how it relates to lineage, parish, and manor; theinteraction of these institutions, and the enduring nature of early medieval spatial entities.

Abstract. Attention is drawn to drong and dál, used in toponomy as synonyms of óenach ‘royal assemblysite’. Examples of these are given. Special attention is paid to drong, and examples of the word as representing óenach sites near royal inauguration sites or other royal centres within local kingdoms are given.

The principles of Saenger and Parkes on the analysis of word spacing in Insular manuscripts are here applied to the Irish ogam corpus. Differences in the adoption of aerated text between that corpus and the Anglo-Saxon epigraphic corpus are examined and the reasons for these differences are explored. Finally, the dating of the adoption of aerated text in both Insular manuscripts and the ogam corpus is compared.

The Discovery Programme has commissioned a new aerial survey of north Roscommon that includes the royal landscape of Rathcroghan and Carnfree, and a territory stretching eastwards towards Strokestown. Here the Medieval Rural Settlement Project presents aspects of an innovative approach to mapping the relict nature of the landscape that will, in turn, contribute significantly to charting the ways in which landscapes evolve over time. The case study centres on Relignaree.

Documents, principally preserved at Kilkenny, uniquely allow us to glimpse the domestic details of the dissolution of a medieval Irish religious house, namely, St John’s Priory, Kilkenny. We can trace in detail the way its assets were divided up and appropriated, and the identity of the persons who profited from the undertaking.

A reflection on the current state of early medieval Irish theological studies in the light of four recent important but uneven publications that lay new sources under contribution and bring new perspectives to medieval Irish theology and spirituality.