O'Looney — On the Book of Leinster and its Contents. 373 



the curious Tracts attributed to Aengus Ceile De, together with a copy of the 

 Calendar or Martyrology of Tallaght, referred to by Colgan, which however is 

 itself also unfortunately imperfect, owing to the loss of a leaf. The defect includes 

 the whole of November and the first sixteen days of December. This Calendar is 

 a transcript of a very ancient Martyrology, containing a list of the saints and 

 martyrs of the Universal Church under each day of the year, the Irish saints being 

 added at the end of each day, and separated from the rest by a peculiar mark. The 

 Calendar commences on Christmas Day, and not, as is more usual, on the kalends 

 of January. At the beginning is this title in Rubric : — 



I. Incipit Martira Oenghusa mic Oiblean et Mortmain [i. e., hie], " Here begins 

 the Martyrology of Oengus Mac Oiblean and Maolruain." 



But this can only mean that the work was compiled from the collections of 

 Oengus and Maolruain as its basis, for it exhibits internal evidence of more recent 

 sources. It mentions Cairpre, Bishop of Clonmacnois, who died 6 March, 899, but 

 contains no notice of Cormac Mac Cuillenain, King and Bishop of Cashel, who was 

 slain in 909 ; neither is there found in it the name of any saint who died after the 

 year 900. It gives the names of Aengus and Maolruain themselves at 11 March 

 and 7 July, respectively, the days on which they were commemorated as saints. 

 Therefore, as Colgan remarks, the work must have been composed at the close of 

 the ninth, or very early in the tenth century. 



IV. The Martyrology of Maolmuire (or Marianus) O'Gormain. 



This work was composed in the times of Gelasius, Archbishop of Armagh, or 

 about a. d. 1167. It is written in Irish verse, and was taken, as the prefatory 

 scholium expressly tells us, from the Martyrology, or Felire, of Tallaght. Its 

 author was abbot of Cnoc-na-napstol [Hill of the Apostles], now Knock, near 

 Louth. The saints commemorated are not exclusively Irish. The only copy of it 

 known to me is that preserved among the Brussels MSS., of which a transcript by 

 Mr. Curry is in my own possession. It contains scholia, written in the manner of 

 a gloss, which add considerably to its value as an historical authority. O'Clery has 

 made great use of this work in the compilation of the Martyrology of Donegal. All 

 the names which he gives without a local designation are from 0' Gorman, as well 

 as those which have short local notices. Of these last many, if not all, are taken 

 from the scholia. It is prohable that the " Old," "Very Antient Vellum Book," 

 so frequently referred to in the following pages, was a volume containing this and 

 some other works on Irish Hagiology, from whiih the Brussels MS. was copied. In 

 some places [pp. 35, 45, et passim'] this " antient old book" is said to have contained 

 " the Martyrology of Moelruain of Tamlacht, and the saints of the same name,*and 

 the names of the mothers of the saints." It contained also the comparison t of the 

 saints of Ireland with those of the Universal Church, who were supposed to have 

 been in the same habits and life. This description seems to identify the Old 

 Vellum Book with the Book of Leinster, for all the tracts alluded to are to be 

 found in the leaves of that book now at St. Isidore's, in Rome. 



" A certain old book J of the Books of Erinn " is mentioued (p. 105) as having 

 contained the names of the fifty-two monks who were beheaded along with St. 

 Donnan of Eg. This is unquestionably the Book of Leinster, for the Martyro- 

 logy of Tallaght, in the loose sheets at St. Isidore's, contains all the names at 

 length. 



* This is a list of saints of the same name, as the Colmans, Finians, Bren- 

 dans, &c. 



t See pp. 23, 27, et passim. This has been published from the Brussels MS. in 

 the Book of Hymns, p. 69, and reprinted by Dr. Kelly, Calendar, p. xli. 



% The "old books of Erinn" are spoken of generally, p. 123 ; and " a certain 

 book," p. 167. 



