Book of Leinster

Now this appears to be an interesting subject of which I don't have a very good answer. In Old Irish and Highland Dress there is a reference in the Appendix to a Book of Leinster (Tain Bo Cualgne - accents on the a in Tain, the o in Bo and the u and Cualgne). At first, I didn't think much of the Tain Bo Cualgne, but apparently there must be some significance of which I'm currently ignorant.

I ran a search on Google for the Book of Leinster, 1150 AD and I found a redaction (with various readings ?) of the Book of Leinster, 1150 AD, but at the top it says Lebor Gabala Erren. Now, since I can't seem to find the references that McClintock made in his Appendix, this can only lead me to believe that these other Gaelic? names are likely the actual titles and there are, I assume, more than one Book of Leinster, 1150 AD. Could these separate titles be sections of the book? This is the link for the Lebor Gabala Erren for later research, since there are other links on the page.

http://members.aol.com/lochlan2/lebor.htm

Doing a little more digging, it looks like there have been several Book of Leinster that have been confused by scholars and novices. I'm finding a Lebhar Laighneach (or Lebar Na Nuachongbala with accents on the u and middle a). This new site http://www.maryjones.us/jce/leinster.html (*) is saying that there is an even earlier Book of Leinster actually called the Book of Glendalough and an even earlier Book of Leinster that was apparently lost over time.

Lebhar na Nuachongbala (which I'll refer to as Lebhar hereafter) is believed to have been produced at a monestary called Nevin. In present day, there are apparently 6 of these monastaries. The one this book is identified with is Noughaval near the town of Stradbally, Co. Waterford. Lebhar is currently housed in the Trinity College Library. It includes the Book of Invasions (Lebor Gabala Erren [okay, so this is part of the Book of Leinster, not a different book]), the major stories of the Ulster Cycle, including Tain Bo Cuailgne (my book :D), as well as kinglists for the various provinces and petty kingdoms of Ireland, stories of King Cormac mac Airt, dindsenchas, An Banshenchas, Cormac's Glossary, and saints' lives. The book would later serve as a source material for later manuscripts like The Yellow Book of Lecan.

You can view the actual pages from the Lebhar online at the Trinity College Library site, tho it is easiest to access it through Irish Script On Screen (Meamram Paipear Riomhaire) at

http://www.isos.dias.ie/

And I found a translation on the Project Gutenburg site, yay!

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16464

As to the Irish Script On Screen (ISOS), they have a rather large collection of actual book images, but they are difficult to read. Thankfully I found the PG version available online, translated by Joseph Dunn. Hopefully he's a translator of merit, but I'll research that another time. On the ISOS site there are books from Colaiste na Rinne, Mount Melleray Abbey, National Library of Ireland, National University of Ireland (Galway), Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College (Dublin), and University College (Dublin).

There are quite a few books on the above site and it will take much more research time than I currently have available, but I have scanned through a few of them. So far on the ISOS site, I have found the following:

The Book of Magauran (Duanaire Mheig Shamhradhain) - 14th cent. vellum manuscript of a family poem-book located in the National Library of Ireland, MS G 1200. The book is difficult to read online, but there is a notation that a transcript was made of the manuscript in 1870 by Joseph O'Longan. (Many of the other manuscripts on the National Library's site are still unidentified or simply are without descriptions. More research later :P)

Leabhar na hUidhre - 11th to 12th cent. vellum manuscript located in the Royal Irish Academy section, MS 23 E 25. This manuscript has pages that are much easier to read, tho it would be helpful if I could read Gaelic or otherwise.

The Annals of Connacht - 15th to 16th cent. located in the Royal Irish Academy section, MS C iii 1. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_Connacht) this book covers the years 1224 to 1544. It's apparently a rather extensive telling of the history of Connacht.

The Book of Ballymote (Leabhar Bhaile an Mhota) - 1390/1391 located at the Royal Irish Academy section, MS 23 P 12. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Ballymote)

The Stowe Missal (or Lorrha Missal) - 9th cent. located in the Royal Irish Academy section, MS D ii 3. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stowe_Missal) There is also a bookshrine on the RIA site that looks to be made of some type of silver metal and lots of decorations. It's a box in which the book would have been contained, I'm assuming for protection. Making a box of that nature would be a neat project, but I seriously doubt I could dedicate myself enough to acquire the talent necessary.

[Notes: (*) (http://www.maryjones.us/index.html) This is a very interesting site by Mary Jones and must be researched more later. Always more research to do, have you ever noticed?]