Cuimre na nGenealach
Encyclopedia
Cuimre na nGenealach is an abridgment of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh
's Leabhar na nGenealach
, written at his home in County Sligo in the spring and summer of 1666.
MS 25 N2, by an unknown scribe, and Maynooth
Irish MS B 8, by Henry MacCarrick, a merchant of Sligo
town.
Mac Fhirbhisigh's lengthy introduction specifies the contents, author, time and place:
While there are differences, the Cuimre in general reflects the layout of LGen. However, the Naoimhsheanchas, the copy of Holinshed's governors, deputys and lieutenants of Ireland, along with almost all of the poems, are absent. It may be that Mac Fhirbhisigh intended to add them later.
Seachas Síl Ír however has been both abridged and rearranged. New material includes:
Examples include Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh
, Martán Ó Conchobhair Sligigh, Brian Ó Ruairc (d. 1641), and Mac Fhirbhisigh himself. It may indeed have been that he intended to recast the entire collection, but realising the scale of the task, contented himself with an abridgment.
Other works cited include:
Dubhaltach's rate of progress can be gauged by a colophon
dated Saturday, 5 May 1666 - at a point where he had written some 45% of the Cuimre since he began on 2 April. This is highly suggestive of a work of transcription; thus Dubhaltach must have had compiled and prepared the text by the time he began, and would have reached the end of what is now the end of both surviving manuscripts by June or July.
Ó Muraile feels that Dubhaltach did not actually finish the work, thus what survives may indeed be much, or all or, what he originally wrote.
. He was working at Sir James's house on Castle Street, Dublin, on Tuesday 6 November 1666. On Saturday 1 December 1666 Sir James died, five days after his seventy-second birthday, bringing their collaboration, and Dubhaltach's employment in Dublin, to an end.
Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh
Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh, also known as Dubhaltach Óg mac Giolla Íosa Mór mac Dubhaltach Mór Mac Fhirbhisigh, Duald Mac Firbis, Dudly Ferbisie, and Dualdus Firbissius was an Irish scribe, translator, historian and genealogist...
's Leabhar na nGenealach
Leabhar na nGenealach
Leabhar na nGenealach is a massive genealogical collection written mainly in the years 1649 to 1650, at the college-house of St. Nicholas's church, Galway, by Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh. He continued to add material until at least 1666, five years before he was murdered in 1671...
, written at his home in County Sligo in the spring and summer of 1666.
Origins and background
The original manuscript was lost sometime after 1706, but it survives in two, apparently incomplete, 18th century transcripts, now RIARIA
RIA can stand for:* Russian Information Agency "RIA Novosti"* Royal Irish Academy* Rich Internet Application* Research into Ageing* Radioimmunoassay* National Rail code for Rhoose Cardiff International Airport railway station, Wales...
MS 25 N2, by an unknown scribe, and Maynooth
Maynooth
Maynooth is a town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to a branch of the National University of Ireland, a Papal University and Ireland's main Roman Catholic seminary, St. Patrick's College...
Irish MS B 8, by Henry MacCarrick, a merchant of Sligo
Sligo
Sligo is the county town of County Sligo in Ireland. The town is a borough and has a charter and a town mayor. It is sometimes referred to as a city, and sometimes as a town, and is the second largest urban area in Connacht...
town.
Mac Fhirbhisigh's lengthy introduction specifies the contents, author, time and place:
"Cuimre Cráobhsgaoileadh cineadh ó Adhamh gus anois, 1666, tionóiltear a leabhraibh Cloinne Fhirbhisigh (is go hairidhe as an leabhar do sgriobhsam fén go foirleanthan are cráobhsgaoileadh mór - agus mion-bhabhal Ereann in gach am) egarthas agus sgriobhthar sonna lesin Dubhaltach mc Giolla Íosa Mhóir mc an and Dubhaltach Mec Fhirbisigh Lecain Mhec Firbhisigh i tTír Fhiachrach Muaidhe, anno Christi 1666: anius and dara lá is an cédlúan do mhís Aibreóil [le toil nDé) trosaigheam so isin Tír Fhiachrach remebeartha/An Abridgement of the genealogical ramifications of the peoples of Ireland and the Scots of AlbaAlbaAlba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is cognate to Alba in Irish and Nalbin in Manx, the two other Goidelic Insular Celtic languages, as well as similar words in the Brythonic Insular Celtic languages of Cornish and Welsh also meaning Scotland.- Etymology :The term first appears in...
together with their principal genealogical branches from Adam until now, 1666, which is assembled from the books of Clann Bhirbhisigh (and especially from the book I wrote myself at length on the ramification of the great and minor branches of Ireland at every time) and is arranged and written here by An Dubhaltach son of Giolla Íosa Mhóir son of An Dubhaltach Mec Fhirbisigh of Lecain Mhec Firbhisigh in Tír Fhiachrach of the Muaidhe in the year of Christ 1666; today, the second day and first Monday of the month of April, we begin this (by God's will) in the year and Tireragh aforesaid."
Contents
Having written Leabhar na nGenealach, Mac Fhirbhisigh took on the task of making a smaller conscise version of the text. The Cuimre contains about 30% of LGen.'s material, fully a third of which (25,000 words) is taken verbatim from LGen. Of the rest (42,000 words), about half is an abridged or rewritten version of LGen., the remaining contents are new, sometimes entirely unique. The new material comes from a variety of sources, mostly unknown, and not found anywhere else.While there are differences, the Cuimre in general reflects the layout of LGen. However, the Naoimhsheanchas, the copy of Holinshed's governors, deputys and lieutenants of Ireland, along with almost all of the poems, are absent. It may be that Mac Fhirbhisigh intended to add them later.
Seachas Síl Ír however has been both abridged and rearranged. New material includes:
- a short piece on the Cruithnigh (PictsPictsThe Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
) - a very detailed history of the StuartHouse of StuartThe House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
kings of ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and BritainEarly Modern BritainEarly modern Britain is the history of the island of Great Britain, roughly corresponding to the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Major historical events in Early Modern British history include the English Renaissance, the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English Civil War, the...
from 1034 to 1666 - detailed genealogies on over twenty-five branches of the Nugents and Daltons
Innovations
An innovative feature of the Cuimre is the manner in which many pedigrees are recast. O Muraile writes (on page 267 of The Celebrated Antiquary):"In a development which is quite unique to this work - not being found, at least in such a systematically developed form, in any other Irish genealogical collection - ... the more important genealogies are set out in the reverse of the usual order of son: father: grandfather, and so on; instead they begin with a more or less distant ancestor and progress from father to son to grandson and so on down - in many cases - to a figure more or less contempoarty with Dubhaltach."
Examples include Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh
Ruaidhri Ó Flaithbheartaigh
Ruaidhri Ó Flaithbheartaigh, King of Iar Connacht and Chief of the Name, fl. 1244-1273.-Biography:Ruaidhri was a brother of the preceding chief, Morogh...
, Martán Ó Conchobhair Sligigh, Brian Ó Ruairc (d. 1641), and Mac Fhirbhisigh himself. It may indeed have been that he intended to recast the entire collection, but realising the scale of the task, contented himself with an abridgment.
Other works cited include:
- Faccuculus Temporum by Werner RolevinckWerner RolevinckWerner Rolevinck was a Carthusian monk and historian who wrote about 50 titles. He was born near Laer, Westphalia, the son of a wealthy farmer. In 1447 he entered the Carthusian Monastery of Santa Barbara in Cologne where he died...
- A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence by Richard Verstegan/Richard RowlandsRichard RowlandsRichard Rowlands , Anglo-Dutch antiquary, whose real name was Verstegen , was the son of a cooper established in East London. His grandfather, Theodore Roland Verstegen, a Dutch emigrant, came from Gelderland to the Kingdom of England c...
Preparation and progress
"Even to produce a work such as the Cuimre ... must have taken a great deal of planning and preparation. We can at least be quite certain that Dubhaltach must have been far from idle during all those years in the 1650's and early 1660's when he is lost from our view.(p.269, Ó Muraile, 1996)"
Dubhaltach's rate of progress can be gauged by a colophon
Colophon (publishing)
In publishing, a colophon is either:* A brief description of publication or production notes relevant to the edition, in modern books usually located at the reverse of the title page, but can also sometimes be located at the end of the book, or...
dated Saturday, 5 May 1666 - at a point where he had written some 45% of the Cuimre since he began on 2 April. This is highly suggestive of a work of transcription; thus Dubhaltach must have had compiled and prepared the text by the time he began, and would have reached the end of what is now the end of both surviving manuscripts by June or July.
Ó Muraile feels that Dubhaltach did not actually finish the work, thus what survives may indeed be much, or all or, what he originally wrote.
Return to Dublin
At some point later in the year Dubhaltach returned to Dublin, where he translated annalistic material for Sir James WareSir James Ware
Sir James Ware was an Irish historian.-Early life:Born at Castle Street, Dublin, Ware was the eldest son of James Ware, who arrived in Ireland in 1588 as a secretary to Lord Deputy FitzWilliam. His father was knighted by King James I, was elected M.P...
. He was working at Sir James's house on Castle Street, Dublin, on Tuesday 6 November 1666. On Saturday 1 December 1666 Sir James died, five days after his seventy-second birthday, bringing their collaboration, and Dubhaltach's employment in Dublin, to an end.
External links
- http://www.deburcararebooks.com/geneal.htm
- http://www.isos.dias.ie/english/index.html