CONNELLAN, Mr. T[haddeus]. The Two First Books of The Pentateuch, or Books of Moses: as A Preparation for the Learners to Read the Holy Scriptures. The types cut by Dr. Edmund Fray from original Irish manuscripts, under the care and direction of T. Connellan.

Printed at the Apollo Press, London. By J. Johnson, Brook Street, Holborn, 1819. Third edition. 12mo. pp. [iv], 200. Modern half calf on marbled boards, title in gilt on red morocco label on spine. From the library of Seamus Ó Casaide with his signature on titlepage. Some foxing as usual. A very attractive copy.
Darlow & Moule 5548. Bradshaw 8654. McGuinne 93. JISC locates 5 copies only.
Text, 193 pages followed by a prayer, and notes on the Irish language, ending on page 200. Edited by Thaddeus Connellan (d. 1854), author of an English-Irish Dictionary (1814), Irish-English Elementary (1815), etc. Intended to be used as a reading-book. The ‘Advertisement’ (following the title leaf) he requests “It is therefore requested, that whosoever can or may read this work, will teach or cause to be taught, gratis, twenty four individuals to read this book; in order that each of them shall instruct twenty four others, on the above plan, and so continue the progress of instruction.” Thady Connellan makes reference to this work in more than one context. It was advertised in his Litir an Riogh as printed in 1825: “The types are copied from the best Irish manuscripts. This work is now in stereotype plates, and has passed through several editions”. In a letter to the Irish Society in 1829 he explained that, while in London, he had procured through friends “a fount of Irish type” that would enable him “to begin and print such works as I knew the country needed” (de Brún, 27).
Provenance: from the library of Séamus Ó Casaide, his ink signature to title. Séamus Ó Casaide (1877-1943), bibliographer, Gaelic Leaguer and one of the great collectors of Irish-language printing was born in Fethard, County Tipperary the son of Michael Cassidy, a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary. He was editor of The Irish Book Lover. He also compiled a book on Irish and Scottish Gaelic verse. He issued a Typographical Gazetteer of Ireland, or The Beginnings of Printing in Irish Towns, published in Dublin in 1923. In 1944 his executors presented ninety Gaelic manuscript items to the National Library of Ireland.

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