‘MAY GOD FORGIVE Edmund for colouring this book on a Sunday night.” So writes a disgruntled scribe of his master, Edmund Butler, in a footnote to the Book of Pottlerath, an illuminated manuscript which dates back to the 15th century.
This spring offers the first opportunity see a copy of a number of pages of the manuscript in its native Kilkenny. Although the book does not contain as many ornate illustrations as the Book of Kells, many of the letters are highly decorated. The original is now housed in the Bodleian library in Oxford, but it arrived there by a long, circuitous route.
James, 4th Earl of Ormond, known as the White Earl, had a great interest in archaeology and history, and it was he who initiated work on the manuscript. When he died of the plague in 1452 he left it to his nephew Edmund Butler, who was building a castle at Pottlerath, Kilmanagh, Co Kilkenny.
In 1453 Edmund decided to enlarge the manuscript, incorporating the earlier work, and he commissioned his scribe Sean Buidhe O’Cleirigh, with his fellow scribes, to continue work on it. It was completed a year later, in 1454 and was called
The Book of Pottlerath. It is interesting to note that the earlier part of the manuscript is today in better condition than the subsequent part.
During the War of the Roses, in 1461 James, 5th Earl of Ormond was beheaded and his head was displayed on Tower Bridge. His brother and heir returned to Ireland and summoned to arms Edmund of Pottlerath, with the local Butlers in Kilkenny and Clonmel. Thomas, Earl of Desmond, united with the Earl of Kildare to oppose the Butler insurrection. A battle took place in Pilltown, south Kilkenny, and the Butlers were defeated, with a loss of 410 men. Edmund was among the prisoners. Part of the ransom demanded for his release was The Book of Pottlerath. It was to take some years for the book to return to the Butlers.
It is thought that The Book of Pottlerath came back to the family as part of the dowry of Joan FitzGerald (daughter of 10th Earl of Desmond) when she married James the Lame, 9th Earl of Ormond and eldest son of Piers, in 1532.
From there, the manuscript went into the hands of Sir George Carew, president of Munster, who had the book bound in leather. He died in 1624, bequeathing his collection to Sir Thomas Stafford. Stafford either sold or gave it to William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the University of Oxford, who in turn gave it to the University for the Bodleian Library in 1636, with the condition that it would not leave Oxford; so it cannot be loaned to any Irish museum. A copy could be made for display in Ireland.
A note giving some of the contents of the book was pasted on the cover: “This booke is a famous coppie of a greate part of Saltair Chaisil the booke of St Mochuda of Rathin Lismore, and the chronicles of Conga wherin is contained many dyvine thinges, and ye most part of ye Antiquities of ye ancientest houses in Ireland, a Cathologue of their Kings, of the coming in of ye Romanes unto England, of ye coming of ye Saxons, and of their lines and raygne, a notable Calender of the Irish Saints composed in Verse eight hundred yeares agoe, with the Saints of ye Romane breviary untill that tyme a Cathologue of ye Popes of Roome.
“How ye Irish and English were converted to ye c(at)holique faith with many other things as the reader may finde, and soe understanding what they containe lett him remember.” – Tully Conry/ Tuileagna O Maolchaire.
The contents are also described by one of the scribes: “To-day is the Saturday after Christmas and we are all in Pottlerath, after writing all that we have found in the Psalter of Cashel, and much from the Book of Rathan and from the Book of Prebend. And the new writing in the book was written for Edmund, son of Richard, in the Fort of Aengusa mc Nafraich, which is now called Pottlerath and more of it in Kilkenny in his own court and some of it in Dunmore and more of it in Gowran and the rest in Carrick” (the full Psalter of Cashel was not copied).
Brian O Cuiv made a study of the book and wrote a key to it, including the footnotes in old Irish. In another publication, the English version is given.
Some of the footnotes written by the scribes are interesting: “Upon my word it is a great penance for us to keep to water on Good Friday, considering the good wine that is at hand in the house at Pottlerath.”
“The year of our Lord today is one thousand four hundred and forty and fourteen years more. My curse on the naughty dog, for he has bitten the best child I ever saw.”
“I wrote this by the candle light in Pottlerath in the presence of Edmund Butler, and may that prince and I dwell among the angels of heaven.” And prophetically: “Do not swear by the sod on which you stand, you shall be over it but a short time – for a long time you will be under it”.
Edmund Butler survived just two short years after his defeat at the battle of Pilltown. He died on June 13th, 1464 and is buried in the Grey Friars church in Kilkenny.
Pottlerath Castle was levelled around the year 1800. Remains of the 15th-century church and dovecot, which were close to it, can still be seen today.
The original Book of Pottlerath is in the Bodleian Library – and can be viewed on the internet, under a search for “Laud Misc 610”.
Copies of six enlarged pages of the book, along with its history and relevant information, are on view in Kilkenny Castle, thanks to the OPW (the exhibition is free) until May 8th; the exhibition will then move to the local Loughboy Library, in Kilkenny, and afterwards to a new museum in St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny.