G 16
An Eagna Fhíre
18th cent. Paper. 15.5 × 9 cms. Pp. 154. Scribe: Micheal Ó Longáin (signature p. 153). There is no scribal indication of place or time of writing. There is an error in the binding: pp. 49-64 should follow p. 80. Leaf numbered 145-6 is a later insertion in the ms.; it is shorter than the other leaves and is written by an unidentified hand but it preserves the continuity of the text. There is no scribal pagination.
The ms. is bound in half-leather. Phillipps MS. 3900 is written on the inside of the front cover; the figures a 54.594 appear there also. The binder inserted one blank leaf after the front cover and another before the back cover, but the latter has since been torn off. On the first blank leaf is stamped the crest of Sir Thomas Phillipps (Sir T. P. Middle Hill). The words transcribed by Michl O Longain are written above the crest and the number 3900 underneath it.
The ms. was once in the possession of Seádhan Breathnach (see entry, p. 154); it was later (in 1823) bought by Phillipps from Mr. Roche of Cork as is indicated by his pencilled note on the inside of the front cover. See G 229 infra for another copy of this text written c. 1712.
Page
1 Introduction: A nainim Dé uillechómhachtaicc An Eagna Fhíre sonn. An eagna fhíre nuadhsmuainte, iarna sgríobhadh a nIodáillis leis an Aithir diadha léighionta .i. Pól Segnary do chóimhthionól Íosa, searbhfhóghantaidhe annsna haimsíribh déaghnacha do ínnocent an dara pápa déag don ainim sin, mar aon le comaoin eile dona neithibh atá riachtanach chum deághfhaoisidin agas comaoineach, iarna chur a cclódh san mbliaghain 1721. Agas iarna chur a nGaedhilge leis an Aithir Seághan mac Diarm[a]da i Bhriain a ttíomchioll na bliaghna 1739 a mBaile Átha Úbhala ag Amhainn Mhór a gContae Chorcuídhe. "... a translation by an t-athair Seán Ó Briain of Ballyhooly, bar. of Fermoy, Co. Cork, of the devotional work La Vera Sapienza, really by Giovanni Pietro Pinamonti (1632-1703), though here attributed, as usually in translations, to Paolo Segnari. The translator appears to have used an English version printed in 1721 ... The work seems to have been popular in Ireland. An [earlier] translation by Seán Ó Neachtain is in T.C.D. H.4.23, and another by Seán Ó Conaill was printed in 1795." (Flower, B.M. ii, p. 460).
2 An t-Athair Seán Ó Briain. An Eagna Fhíre. Beg. Tabhair fá deara, an tan do ghnídh tú peaca marbhthach and headed An chéad Smuaineadh don Dómhnach. Air an bpeaca marbhthach. An Chéad mhachtnamh. Atá an peaca easanórach ag Dia. Text ends p. 153 and at this point in the three R.I.A. versions (P i 2, p. 3; 23 G 27, p. 73; 23 B 26, p. 257) there is a prayer beg. `An orrtha. Ad láthair ad.chí tú, ó a thighearna' which is not included in this version.
After the word foirceann the scribe wrote the following Latin elegiac couplet: Finitur finis finem finire fatemur
fine coronatur nobile semper opus.
The scribe's signature Micheal Ó Longáin do ghraf an obair seo follows.
154 Blank except for the following note: Seádhán Breathnach a lámh ┐ a leabhair uno xxxmo Junii A.D. 1807.