Editing Book of Armagh

[[Image:Book of Armagh.jpg|thumb|200px|A page of text from the Book of Armagh.]]

The '''''Book of Armagh''''' or '''Codex Ardmachanus''' ('''ar''' or '''61'''), also known as the ''Canon of Patrick'' and the ''Liber Ar(d)machanus'', is a 9th-century [[Ireland|Irish]] [[illuminated manuscript]] written mainly in Latin. It is held by the Library of [[Trinity College, Dublin]] (MS 52). The document is valuable for containing early texts relating to [[St Patrick]] and some of the oldest surviving specimens of [[Old Irish language|Old Irish]], and for being one of the earliest manuscripts produced by an insular church to contain a near complete copy of the [[New Testament]].

==History==
The manuscript was once reputed to have belonged to [[St. Patrick]] and, at least in part, to be a product of his hand. Research has determined, however, that the earliest part of the manuscript was the work of a scribe named [[Ferdomnach of Armagh]] (died 845 or 846). Ferdomnach wrote the first part of the book in 807 or 808, for Patrick's heir (''comarba'') Torbach. Two other scribes are known to have assisted him.

The people of medieval Ireland placed a great value on this manuscript. Along with the [[Bachal Isu]], or Staff of Jesus, it was one of the two symbols of the office for the [[Archbishop of Armagh (Roman Catholic)|Archbishop of Armagh]]. The custodianship of the book was an important office that eventually became hereditary in the [[MacMoyre]] family. It remained in the hands of the MacMoyre family in the townland of [[Ballymoyer]] near [[Whitecross, County Armagh]] until the late 17th century. Its last [[hereditary]] keeper was [[Florence MacMoyer]]. By 1707 it was in the possession of the [[Brownlow (disambiguation)|Brownlow]] family of [[Lurgan]]. It remained in the Brownlow family until 1853 when it was sold to the Irish antiquary, [[William Reeves (bishop)|Dr William Reeves]]. In 1853, Reeves sold the Book to [[John George de la Poer Beresford]], [[Archbishop of Armagh (Church of Ireland)|Archbishop of Armagh]], who presented it to [[Trinity College, Dublin]],<sup>[1]</sup> where it can be read online using the [http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/#searchresults Digital Collections] portal of the Trinity College library.

==Manuscript==
The book measures 7.75 by 5.75 inches (19.7 by 14.6 cm). There are 221 folios of [[vellum]]. The text is written in two columns in a fine pointed [[insular minuscule]]. The manuscript contains four [[miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniature]]s, one each of the four [[Four Evangelists|Evangelist]]s' symbols. Some of the letters have been colored red, yellow, green, or black. The manuscript is associated with a tooled-leather satchel, believed to be of great antiquity.

It contains text of Vulgate, but there are many Old Latin readings in the Acts and Pauline epistles.<sup>[2]</sup>

==Illumination==
The manuscript has three full-page drawings, and a number of decorated initials in typical [[Insular style]]. Folio 32v shows the [[four Evangelists]]' symbols in compartments in ink, the eagle of John resembling that of the [[Book of Dimma]]. Elsewhere yellow, red, blue and green are used.<sup>[3]</sup>

== Dating of the Manuscript==
The dating of the manuscript goes back to Rev. Charles Graves, who deciphered in 1846 from partially erased colophons the name of the Scribe Ferdomnach and the bishop Torbach who ordered the Book. 
According to the [[Annals of the Four Masters]] Torbach died in 808 and [[Ferdomnach]] in 847. As Torbach became bishop in 807 and died in 808 the manuscript must have been written around this time. 
Unfortunately to make the writing better visible Graves used a chemical solution and this had the effect that the writing related to the scribe and bishop is not readable any more.
<sup>[4]</sup>

==Contents==
The manuscript can be divided into three parts:

===Texts relating to St Patrick===
The first part contains important early texts relating to St. Patrick. These include two ''Lives'' of St. Patrick, one by [[Muirchu Maccu Machteni]] and one by [[Tírechán]]. Both texts were originally written in the 7th century. The manuscript also includes other miscellaneous works about St. Patrick, including the ''Liber Angueli'' (or the ''Book of the Angel''), in which St. Patrick is given the [[primate (bishop)|primatial]] rights and prerogatives of [[Armagh]] by an [[angel]]. Some of these texts are in Old Irish and are the earliest surviving continuous prose narratives in that language. The only Old Irish texts of greater age are some fragmentary [[gloss (annotation)|glosses]] found in manuscripts on the Continent.

*[[Muirchu moccu Machtheni|Muirchu]], ''Vita sancti Patricii''
*[[Tírechán]], ''Collectanea''
*''notulae'' in Latin and Irish on St. Patrick's acts, and ''additamenta'', charter-like documents later inserted into the manuscript
*''[[Liber Angeli|Liber Ang(u)eli]]'' ('The Book of the Angel') (640 x 670), written in Ferdomnach's hand
*[[St. Patrick]], ''Confessio'' in abbreviated form

===New Testament material===
The manuscript also includes significant portions of the [[New Testament]], based on the ''[[Vulgate]]'', but with variations characteristic of insular texts. In addition, prefatory matter including prefaces to Paul's Epistles (most of which are by [[Pelagius]]), the ''[[Canon Tables]]'' of [[Eusebius]], and the [[Letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus]] are included.

*New Testament:
**Preface to the New Testament
**Interpretation of Hebrew names 
**Gospels of [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]], [[Gospel of Mark|Mark]], [[Gospel of John|John]] and [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]]
**[[Acts of the Apostles]]
**Epistles of [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]], including the [[Epistle to the Laodiceans]]
***with prefaces, chiefly by [[Pelagius]]
**Epistles of [[Epistle of James|James]], 
**Epistles of [[Saint Peter|Peter]], 
**Epistles of [[John the Evangelist|John]]
**[[Epistle of Jude|Jude]]
**[[Book of Revelation]]
*[[St Jerome]], Letter to [[Pope Damasus I|Damasus]]
*[[Eusebius]], ''[[Canon Tables]]''

===Life of St Martin===
The manuscript closes with the ''Life of St. [[Martin of Tours]]'' by [[Sulpicius Severus]].

==Bibliography==
;Editions and translations
*[[Edward Gwynn]] ''Book of Armagh: the Patrician Documents.'' Irish Manuscripts Commission. Facsimiles in Collotype of Irish manuscripts 3. Dublin, 1937. [[Facsimile]] edition.
*[[John Gwynn (Syriacist)]] ''Liber Ardmachanus: the Book of Armagh''. Dublin, 1913.
*Bieler, Ludwig (ed. and tr.). ''The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh''. Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 10. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1979.
*[[Whitley Stokes (scholar)|Stokes, Whitley]]. ''Irish Glosses''. Dublin, 1860. Includes Old Irish glosses from the manuscript. Available from Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/irishglossesmedi00stokuoft here] and [https://archive.org/details/irishglossesmedi00stok here].

;Secondary literature
*Sharpe, Richard. "Palaeographical Considerations in the Study of the Patrician Documents in the Book of Armagh." ''Scriptorium'' 36 (1982): 3–28.

==See also==
* [[List of New Testament Latin manuscripts]]
* ''[[Annla Gearra as Proibhinse Ard Macha]]''

== References ==
* 1. Atkinson, E.D., [[Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland|R.S.A.I.]] (1911). [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/DromoreUlsterDiocese.pdf ''Dromore An Ulster Diocese''], p.19.
* 2. Bruce M. Metzger, The Early Versions of the New Testament, Oxford University Press, 1977, pp. 305, 341.
* 3. Mitchell, George Frank, ''Treasures of Irish art, 1500 B.C.-1500 A.D.: from the collections of the National Museum of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College, Dublin (etc)'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977, ISBN 0394428072, 9780394428079, No. 43, p. 143, with f.43v illustrated on a full page shortly before. [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/113771/rec/1020 Fully online (PDF) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art]
* 4. harpe, Richard (1982). "Palaeographical Considerations in the Study of the Patrician Documents in the Book of Armagh". Scriptorium: International Review of Manuscript Studies. 36: 3–28.

==External links==
*[https://archive.org/details/cu31924091179337 The Book of Armagh at archive.org]
*[http://www.confessio.ie Saint Patrick's Confessio Hypertext Stack] a project by the Royal Irish Academy freely provides digital facsimiles of the Patrician Documents in the Book of Armagh
*[http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/#searchresults Trinity College Digital Collections] with images of the complete codex.
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/113771/rec/1 Treasures of early Irish art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.], an exhibition catalogue from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the Book of Armagh (cat. no. 43 & 67)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Book of Armagh}}
[[Category:800s books]]
[[Category:Armagh (city)]]
[[Category:Irish manuscripts]]
[[Category:Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts]]
[[Category:Christian manuscripts]]
[[Category:9th-century Christian texts]]
[[Category:Vulgate manuscripts]]
[[Category:Trinity College Library, Dublin]]
[[Category:9th century in Ireland]]
[[Category:Gospel Books]]