388 



marked by their individual characteristics, but also be able, by a 

 comparison with any of our own MSS., in the hand-writing of Cuco- 

 gry O'CIery, to ascertain what portions of the Annals were so written 

 by that admirable scribe. <fvBOT yi^woad b iaa^aiaii 



I have to add to these evidences, another of yet greater import- 

 ance — namely, that a great number of loose leaves accompany the 

 volume, which, on examination, prove to be the first extracts from 

 the original ancient documents, copied out without much regard to 

 order or chronological arrangement, previously to their being regu- 

 larly transferred to the work. There are also additions in the hand- 

 writing of Michael O'CIery, the chief of the Four Masters, bringing 

 the Annals down as late as the year 1616, which appears to have 

 been the last entry ever made in the volume. 



These evidences will, I trust, be deemed amply sufficient to esta- 

 blish the fact of this MS. being the veritable original autograph of 

 this important work, written, as the title now prefixed to the Trinity 

 College copy properly states, ad usum Fergalli O'Gara. — The cir- 

 cumstances relative to its history, which I shall now have the honour 

 to submit, will enable us, I think, to trace its possession with tolera- 

 ble certainty to the last direct representative of the family of its illus- 

 trious patron. -,. 



It has been hitherto generally believed that no perfect copy of 

 the Second Part of the Annals of the Four Masters was in existence, 

 and that the mutilated volume in the College Library, which is defi- 

 cient in the years preceding 1335, and was never carried farther than 

 the year 1605, was the only original to be found. The recent acqui- 

 sition to our valuable collection of MSS. of a perfect transcript of the 

 whole of the work, proved the supposition to be an error, and that at 

 the period when it was transcribed an original autograph of the se-^ 

 cpnd volume had been in existence. '<^ ^^ i 



