[ 15 ] 



II. 



THE MA]S^USCRIPT KNOAVX AS THE LIBER FLATUS 

 EERGUSIORTJM. 



By EDWARD GWYjN-^, M.A., E.T.C.D. 



Read 11 December, 190.'). Ordered for Publication 13 December, 1905. 

 Published March 7, 1906. 



The Liher Flaviis Fergusionim at present consists of 92 vellum 

 folios, bound in two volumes. The first of these contains 37 folios, 

 the second 55. The ms., though written at various times, seems to 

 be the work of one scribe. His name was perhaps Aed, as is sug- 

 gested by the note on vol. i., 15 verso, h. But this note may be a later 

 addition, and anyhow there is nothing to show who Aed may have 

 been. Some inferences as to the provenance of the codex may, 

 however, be drawn from a note which occurs in vol. i., folio 23 

 recto, col. a: "Sean Ua Conchobair put these small matters into 

 Gaelic, and Donnchad ua Maelchonaire wrote them at Lios Aedain 

 in Ciarraighe Airde, in the house of Ruaidri ua hUiginn, in great 

 haste : and I implore mercy of Christ." This note comes in the 

 middle of a column, and therefore was probably in the ms. from which 

 the scribe of our ms. was copying : had Donough O'Mulconry been 

 the writer of the Liher Flavus, he would probably have inserted a 

 note of this sort at the bottom of a column, after the usual practice 

 of scribes. 



The O'Mulconrys were hereditary *ollaves' of the Si'l Muireadh- 

 aig : see Four Masters, an. 1232, 1270, 1384, 1404, 1468. Of the Si'l 

 Muireadhaig, the O'Conors of Roscommon were an important branch. 

 It is quite likely that the first two persons named in the note just 

 cited were the Sean ua Conchobair whose death is recorded by the 

 Four Masters under the year 1391, and the Donnchadh Ban ua 

 Maelchonaire who died in 1404. It is also possible that their host 

 was the Ruaidri Ruadh ua Huiginn, saoi fir dhd^ia, whose death is 

 mentioned in 1425." 



'•'Lis Aedain is placed by Hennessv {index to Annals of Loch Ce) in the 



R.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXV., SEC. c] [2J 



