The National Library of Ireland will bid next week at an auction in London for one of the last remaining ancient Irish manuscripts still in private hands. The 48-leaf Nugent manuscript of Irish bardic poetry dating from the 16th century was on loan to the National Library from the early 1930s until the past year. It is due to be sold by Sotheby's on December 11th and carries an estimate of £150,000-£200,000, although given the item's rarity this amount could be exceeded.
The library's acting director, Mr Brendan O'Donoghue, said yesterday: "We will be attending the auction and making a substantial bid."
The National Library, together with the Royal Irish Academy and Trinity College, already has a substantial collection of early Irish manuscripts.
The vast majority of surviving documents are still held in this country. However, as Dr Peter Beale of Sotheby's points out, no work of this kind has come up at public auction since the Book of Armagh was offered for sale in London in 1831: "It could be another 150 years before another such manuscript appears again." Both he and Mr O'Donoghue agree the Nugent manuscript has several important features.
Composed around 1577 for the Gaelicised Anglo-Norman Nugent family of Delvin, Co Westmeath, An Duanaire Nuinseannach contains 49 poems written on vellum in square format by one or possibly two professional scribes; additional pages record the births of later members of the same family in the 18th century. It is written in the traditional Irish majuscule used in all such manuscripts, with the opening of each line set aside from the rest of the text.
Originally compiled for recitation, the poems are predominantly panegyrics to various Irish chieftains throughout the four provinces. No fewer than 18 of the pieces are attributed to members of the O Cobhthaigh family, who appear to have had a special relationship with the Nugents, probably supplying them with a succession of bards.
The manuscript also contains a handful of religious poems, as well as two pieces in which professional bards plead for the importance and virtue of their craft. The Nugent manuscript represents a long bardic tradition which came to an end shortly after its completion, with the destruction of the Gaelic world during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
"One or two of the poems are absolutely unique," according to Dr Beale, who believes "some of the earliest known Irish texts are here, with a number of items unpublished and unknown until this came to light."
What makes the manuscript exceptional is that for the past 400 years it has remained in the hands of the family for whom the work was first written. Although the book was given on loan to the National Library 60 years ago, the owners have now decided to sell. "There are not too many manuscripts likely to be in private hands," said Mr O'Donoghue. "This is obviously something we'd like to have."