157
800Years IrishPolitical, Literary&MilitaryHistory - 15thApril2014
433 O’Donovan, John.
Annals of theKingdomof Irelandby theFourMasters.
Hodges, Smith&Co.,Dublin, 1856, the sought after second revised edition, reboundbyAntiquarianBookcrafts,Dublin, 6
volumes and an index. Theworkwas compiledbetween1632 and1636by a small teamof historians headedbyBr.MichaelO’
Clery, aFranciscan laybrother andwritten in theFranciscanmonastryofDonegal.Hewas assistedbyhis cousinCucogryor
PeregrineO’Clery, FergusO’Mulconry fromCountyRoscommon andPeregrineO’DuigenanofCastleforeCountyLeitrim.
Michael’s brotherConor andMauriceO’Mulconry also assisted in the compilationof theAnnals. It remained, for themost part,
unpublished andun-translateduntil JohnO’Donovanpreparedhis editionbetween1847 and1856. The crowning achievement
of JohnO’Donovan’s edition is the copious historical, topographical andgenealogicalmaterial in the footnoteswhichhavebeen
universally acclaimedby scholars.DouglasHydewrote that theO’Donovan edition represented: ‘the greatestwork that any
modern Irish scholar ever accomplished.’O’Donovan assumes thepracticeof recordingpublic events in the formof annals began
with the comingofChristianity. TheAnnals are aprecis of six earlierworks,mostlywritten innorth Ireland andof ancient roots.
€1500 - 2500
