This month I had the pleasure to participate in a workshop on Glossing in Celtic Contexts to discuss some of the work I am doing on the editorial glosses in the Franciscan manuscript (MS UCD-OFM A7) of Félire Óengusso. As you can read here, this manuscript was written by Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín on behalf of Cathal Mac Magnusa Meg Uidhir (d. 1498). Ó Luinín was not a passive copyist of the text, however—something I have previously discussed in a lecture on the Preface to the Félire. In my talk, which I am expanding at present, I discussed the particular way in which this scribe marks text-critical annotations.
While this is still work in progress, the talk reminded me that for those of you who are interested in such things, I might share with you some of the more common text-critical graphs you would encounter when reading insular manuscripts.
Some of these you might have spotted already, at the top of the page, in the margin of the header image, which is from one of the Rawlinson manuscripts. There you can see the graph .i. (an i with enclosing dots either side) marking the insertion of a . The enclosing dots (punctus) are often used to mark special characters and numerals. In Irish manuscripts the .i. graph stands for ed ón ‘that is’ and is the most common graph used for adding notes to a text. It is the medieval equivalent of modern ‘i.e.’, which stands for Latin id est ‘that is’, which is also what .i. was modelled on. In the example below, the scribe has added the note .i. do dia (to God) to the phrase slóg mar ba dixu (a host that was higher)*.
Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 505, f. 211r Photo: © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Another very common graph which you might have recognised on the header image, is the graph for ‘or’, nó in Irish (or uel in Latin): ƚ. This graph is used in a range of different functions. Sometimes it represents the word ‘or’, at other times just the letters. In my ongoing research, I am looking at variation of the use of the ƚ graph by one particular scribe, in one specific text, to indicate variants to the main text. A good example is found among the set of notes to the first line of the quatrain on June 13th. While the gloss above the line begins with .i., mbresta is glossed with ƚ primda. In fact, this is not so much a gloss as a textual variant: this is is the word found in this place in the line (instead of mbresta) in manuscript Rawl. B 505. Of course, not all examples are as neat at this one (and the graph for ‘or’ is also still used simply to indicate the word)—but more about this another time!
UCD Archives, MS UCD-OFM A7, f. 22rb, June 13. Reproduced by kind permission of UCD-OFM Partnership.
Not all graphs on the page represent letters, however. Further to right on the header image, you can see a symbol resembling • ⁄ • at the beginning of a marginal gloss. This symbol is a critical sign indicating that the gloss is a continuation of a gloss that was started elsewhere. It operates as a tag mark, tagging this line to the original gloss, and is therefore a reading aid.
In this case, it refers back to this partner tag mark earlier in the same line:
Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 505, f. 211r Photo: © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
The full gloss comments on the name Luciani in the main text: .i. prespiteri, id est prespiteri Antiochie Maximiano imperatore passus est (i.e., a presbyter, i.e. a presbyter of Antioch who suffered under the emperor Maximian). [Here this refers to Maximinus Daza rather than the earlier emperor Maximian.]
Finally, another feature that is very common is something called the (head under wing). It is more of a punctuation feature, in that it usually marks the end of a paragraph, verse, or line. Sometimes it is repeated to fill up the remaining space. Other times writing continues after the ceann fo eitte, often continuing from the line below.
Here is a selection from MS B 505:
Interested in exploring more? I can recommend this helpful article by my colleague Evina Steinová, which deals with all sorts of technical annotations, as well as point you too the special section on Punctuation, critical signs, and numerals in the Tionscadal na Nod area of CODECS, published by the van Hamel Stichting. Happy reading!
*The discussion about whether or not this text uses the comparative for the superlative sense is one for another day!