Paradise lost and found: The story of an Irish manuscript in Illinois

Abstract

abstract: This article draws attention to a nineteenth-century Irish-language manuscript, thought until now by scholars to have been irretrievably lost. The early history of the manuscript is set out and, by careful interrogation of an extant microfilm copy in the National Library of Ireland, the current whereabouts and identity of the manuscript are traced to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, POST-1650 MS 0115, where it has been since 1958. A description of the manuscript is appended to this article.