The book of obits and martyrology of the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ Church, Dublin / Edited from the original manuscript in the library of Trinity college, Dublin, by John Clarke Crosthwaite ... With an introduction, by James Henthorn Todd.

Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of obits and martyrology of the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ Church, Dublin / Edited from the original manuscript in the library of Trinity college, Dublin, by John Clarke Crosthwaite ... With an introduction, by James Henthorn Todd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Inter natale quadragenamque scitarum. Quantum distat ab a. feriali tot que dierum Anno bissexti volt una dies superaddi.” It remains now only to say a few words on the age of the Book of Obits, which Ware, and, after him, Wood, Harris, and Archdall attribute to Thomas Fych, or Fitch, a canon regular and sub-prior of the convent, who died in 1517, and whose obit was celebrated on the 17th of January7. The grounds of this opinion are, that the manuscript is certainly, from its character, not older than the latter part of the fifteenth century2: and on comparing it with the White Book of Christ Church, which is still in possession of the Dean and Chapter, we find a very close similarity in the handwriting. That the White Book was compiled, if not written, by Fyche, is evident from the following note, in the original hand of the manuscript, fol. 57, a: “ Sum liber ecclesie Cath. Sancte Trinitatis Dublin, fact, per fratrem Thomam Fyche, canonicum eiusdem.” The entry of the obit of Thomas Fych, in the Book of Obits, is in a hand evidently later than the original handwriting of the manu- script ; y See p. 7, ad 16 Kal. Febr. z Ware’s words in the original Latin edition of his Writers of Ireland are as follow : “ Scripsit de rebus ecclesijc suse, Lib. i. qui Liber Albus dicitur. Forte etiam Necrologium, sive liber obituum ejusdem ecclesiae. Nam ejus tempore scrip- turn esse, e characteris genere liquet.” De Script. Hib. p. 81. Wood (Athen. Oxon. vol. i. 21, ed. Bliss) seems to have misunderstood these words ; for he says that the book written by Fich, De rebus ecclesice suck, “was sometimes in the library of Sir James Ware” [which seems to have been a pure conjecture, without any foun- dation], “ who saith it was usually called the White Book, and takes it to be the same with the Obital Book of that church, for in his time it was written, as by the cha- racter it appears, being at this day re- served as a great rarity in the Library of Trinity College near Dublin.” It will be seen, however, that Ware is so far from confounding the Liber Albus with the Book of Obits, that he expressly distin- guishes them.