Abstract/Summary

Trinity College Dublin MS 1298 (H. 2. 7) contains a particularly high number of texts translated from other languages into Irish. These include translations of two works from classical Latin, a Charlemagne narrative from medieval Latin, three romances from Middle English and a chronicle from Hiberno-English. Alongside these translations we have texts, sometimes in a similar vein, from the Irish language tradition. Who commissioned and read these translations? What is the interest of these particular translated texts for Irish readers? Surprisingly, the background and early ownership of TCD 1298 has received little previous study. Drawing on the evidence from this neglected manuscript context, this paper attempts to shed some light on why these texts have been grouped together in this codex and why they might have been particularly interesting to their Irish audience. It will also suggest that the cultural interests articulated by TCD 1298 chime with wider trends in European literature at the end of the Middle Ages.