Humfrey Wanley, Bishop John O’Brien, and the colophons of Mael Brigte’s Gospels

Abstract

Mael Brigte’s scribal colophons in BL MS Harley 1802 allow the writing to be dated to 1138 in Armagh. This was recognized in 1713 by Humfrey Wanley, whose study of the manuscript was remarkable in its time. It was also worked out by Bishop O’Brien, who saw the manuscript in the British Museum in 1767. Wanley relied on manuscripts from James Ware’s collection, in his day
owned by the Hon. James Brydges. O’Brien took his chronology from the annals compiled for him by Fr John Connery and known as the Dublin Annals of Inisfallen. His own copy is now TCD MS 1281, and a high proportion of the sources for the compilation is represented by MSS 1281 and 1292. The first colophon in particular is more than evidence of date, however: it is testimony to the view from the primatial see on the killing of the devout king of all Ireland, Cormac Mac Carthaig.