Clavis litterarum Hibernensium. Medieval Irish books and texts (c. 400-c. 1600) by Donnchadh � Corr�in (review)

Abstract

North American journal of Celtic studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (May 2019) Copyright © 2019 by The Ohio State University REVIEW ESSAY PATRICK WADDEN Donnchadh Ó Corráin. 2017. Clavis litterarum Hibernensium. Medieval Irish books and texts (c. 400—c. 1600). ISBN 978–2–54857–9. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers. clxiv + 1932 pages. €875. In compiling Clavis litterarum Hibernensium (henceforth CLH), Donnchadh Ó Corráin sought to provide an overview of the literary output of Irish authors and scribes at home and abroad during the medieval period so that its extent and quality might be assessed (vii).1 His estimation that this undertaking was ‘difficult’ hardly does justice the vast ambition of the project (vii). Even a brief perusal of this work demonstrates the quantity and quality of the medieval Irish literary achievement in both Latin and the vernacular and across a variety of genres. That he has largely achieved his goal is testament to the breadth and depth of Ó Corráin’s knowledge, built over the course of a career spanning nearly half a century. The result of his labor of love is a landmark accomplishment that speaks in important ways about the current status of the discipline and will be valued by future generations of students and scholars alike. The three hefty volumes in which it has been published have something for everybody, including critics. After a preface whose brevity masks its substance, and a lengthy bibliography, the catalogue lists more than 1365 individual items divided into 32 sections, usually according to genre, but occasionally according to the author or location with which they are associated. Other groupings are a little less obvious or more specific, one such being Section 9 ‘Irish scholars and Greek in the West’. These sections are listed in roughly chronological—though of necessity overlapping and imprecise—order, beginning with the earliest surviving examples of Irish literacy in the form of epigraphy and progressing 1. Roman numerals refer to page numbers in the preface. Arabic numerals in bold font refer to items listed in CLH. Arabic numerals in plain font refer to page numbers. Patrick Wadden [patrickwadden@​ bac​ .edu] is Associate Professor of History at Belmont Abbey College, North Carolina. His interests focus on the political and cultural links that existed between the different part of the Gaelic world and on the place of the Gaels in the broader Insular and European worlds of the Middle Ages. 86 North American journal of Celtic Studies through a catalogue of medieval texts and manuscripts dating from the fifth to the sixteenth century. The majority of the individual items listed are texts. Most entries include an incipit, an overview of the manuscript tradition, a list of editions and facsimiles, and a bibliography of pertinent secondary literature arranged chronologically. Other items given their own entries include inscriptions and manuscripts, whose entries differ somewhat in content. Those on manuscripts include convenient lists of contents for cross-reference, for example (816–822). Additionally, there are general bibliographies for certain specific topics, including ‘Irish biblical commentaries’ (102), ‘Irish apocrypha and eschatologica’ (184), ‘Luxeuil, Bobbio and Columbanus’ (338), ‘Collectio canonum Hibernensis’ (615) and ‘Medieval vernacular narrative prose’ (1511). Some items are introduced with brief, though often very valuable, notes. It is a pity that these are somewhat sporadic and do not accompany every item. According to the preface, the rationale for this is that some works ‘especially in Old and Middle Irish, . . . may be less familiar to readers’ (xvii). That, of course, depends on the reader. While it is true that every text listed in Section 27 ‘Medieval vernacular narrative prose’, has its own note (955–1127), and one goal of the work is clearly to make this material more accessible to the non-specialist, a more even dispersal of these notes would have been of great benefit, as would some more consistency in the notes’ contents. For while some of those on vernacular narratives date the texts, others do not. One might question certain decisions regarding categorizations and organization. It is a little peculiar, for example, that Lebor Bretnach (1251), the Middle Irish translation of Historia Brittonum, appears in Section 28 ‘Historicist and historical vernacular texts. Verse, prose and prosimetrum’, while the roughly contemporary translation...