BRADSHAW SOCIETY: The Psalter and Martyrology of Ricemarch. Text, notes, indices, and plates. Edited by Hugh Jackson Lawlor.

Two volumes. London: Bradshaw Society, 1914. Demy octavo. First edition. pp. (1) xxxvi, 140, (2) [iv], lxxviii, 9. Black cloth over bevelled boards, titled in gilt. Bradshaw Society badge in gilt on upper cover. Spines evenly faded, minute wear to head. From the library of the English Church Union - Lord Phillimore Bequest with bookplate on front pastedown. €485 The Venerable Bede tells us that in the later part of the seventh century many Angles, of noble and simple birth, went to study in Ireland, and were there hospitably received, and provided with, food, books and teachers, free of charge. As a result of the Viking invasions, Irish men of learning tended more and more to become teachers rather than scholars, and gravitated towards a few great seats of learning, of which the principal were Clonmacnoise and Armagh. Towards the middle of the eleventh century Ireland was visited by a Briton of great distinction. Sullien, surnamed the Wise, a native of Cardiganshire, in Wales. He spent thirteen years in Ireland, and on his return to Wales he established a school of learning. He had four sons, the eldest of whom was Ricemarch or Rhygyfarch who was also surnamed like his father the Wise. He composed some verses which are preserved in the Psalter. This manuscript is now housed in Trinity College, Dublin, MS. A.4.20. Ricemarch tells us that it was written for him by a scribe named Ithael in the Irish hand, and that the large illuminated letters were the work of his brother John. The date of the manuscript is between 1064 and 1082. Little is known of the history of the manuscript from the end of the eleventh century to the beginning of the seventeenth century, but it was in the possession of William Bedel, who was Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, from 1627 to 1629 and Bishop of Kilmore from 1629 to his death during the Irish Rebellion of 1641. This is proven by the fact that his signature appears on folio 2. It was later in the possession of Archbishop James Ussher and came to Trinity College with Ussher’s library about 1665. Provenance: From the library of Walter George Frank Phillimore, 1st Baron Phillimore, GBE, PC (1845-1929), known as Sir Walter Phillimore, 2nd Baronet, a British lawyer and judge. Phillimore was an eminent ecclesiastical lawyer, and mostly practised in front of ecclesiastical and admiralty courts, seldom appearing in front of the common law courts.