CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND
November 2018
The Black Book of Limerick The manuscript known as the ‘Black Book of Limerick’ is a compilation of documents written on vellum and preserved in the Diocesan Archives in Limerick. Most of the documents date from 1222 to 1300 but they are not in chronological order. The earliest document, “Carta Donaldi regis Lymericensis”, concerning the re-endowment of St Mary’s Cathedral by King Donald (1194), is on page 108. The latest document is an indenture (a contract under seal) by Stephen, Bishop of Limerick (1360-1369) in the year 1362. Last November Dr Catherine Swift, lecturer in Medieval History in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, convened a meeting about the Black Book and a group of historians, archaeologists, representatives from the Limerick Branch of the CAI, among others, began revisiting the MS and translating the transcribed Latin in a 1907 dissertation on the text. This is a work in progress. Description of the MS The MS consists of 152 pages, 10x7in, with 29 lines to the page. Pages 127-134 show smaller writing, with 53 lines to the page and closer lines. The writing is clear and distinct; the contractions used are as in Latin documents of that time; the titles of entries and the capital letters are rubricated and, in some cases, the opening letters of items are slightly ornamented. The vellum in the earlier portion (up to page 134) is remarkably beautiful and different from the quality employed towards the end. The MS is in a good state of preservation with some little blotting over at pages 134 and 136-138. It is illegible on pages 142 and 143. The text is on both sides and generally in single columns. The earlier portion of the work, as was usual at the time, was not paged but numbered by folios, by Roman characters and, only later, in Arabic characters. It was the subject of a Dissertation by James MacCaffrey in 1907 (African Missions Library).
History of the MS The MS was preserved in the Diocesan Archives until the Reformation. It passed to the Protestant Bishops. Bishop Bernard Adams (1603-1625) added a portion regarding repairs to St Mary’s Cathedral between 1604 and 1611. Bishop George Webb (1634-1642) was besieged in Limerick Castle by Confederate forces and, on capitulation, the MS fell into the possession of Irish soldiers. Nothing further is known of it until the nineteenth century when it was given to Bishop Young (1796-1814) by a Protestant gentleman. Young added short notes. Bishop George Butler (1864-1886) loaned it to Dr Rehenan, V.P. Maynooth (1834-45), and on Rehenan’s death it passed to the library in Maynooth College. Bishop Jeremiah Newman (1974-95) obtained the MS and it is now in Limerick Diocesan Archives. Paula Keane 7