The 'Emanuel MS.', so named by Thomas Astle from the word ‘Emanuel’ (‘Emanuel amen’, folio 6 recto) being prominently inscribed by the text-hand at the top of most pages, generally boxed in red. It is written, as Donald Mackintosh says (Gaelic Ossian, volume 3, page 567), in a ‘strong beautiful hand’: that of Tadhg Ó Cianáin. His colophon (folio 2 verso), now very indistinct, appears to be dated 1462; at any rate he wrote the manuscript, he tells us, during the kingship of Tomás Óg Maguire of Fermanagh, i.e. 1430-1471, and he himself died in 1469.

In two columns; red and yellow colouring. Two other early hands, both practised, appear in marginalia at folios 1 recto and 3 recto.

A bifolium, the ‘inner diploma of a stave’ (Royal Irish Academy Catalogue), was obtained from James Macpherson by Thomas Astle to illustrate his ‘Origin and progress of writing’. It passed through the Stowe and Ashburnham Collections to become Royal Irish Academy MS. D i 1 (1237), number I (photographs, National Library of Scotland MS.14901). Astle’s facsimile, in his plate 22, is of folio [2 verso], column a, lines 20-25. See also page 123 of his book. The Royal Irish Academy bifolium bears two marginalia. One, at folio [1 verso], is in a fresh hand and, though obscure, may perhaps be an addition to the text. The other, at folio [2 verso], is in the ?Scottish hand of folio 1 recto: ‘...(ga)c gabar glas . caera gach bo beacc ahas . creacoir cen fhuirech gach fir . is bid drinne gach drochben’.

The manuscript was described by John Mackenzie of the Highland Society of London in his inventory of 1803 as: ‘A large Quarto Vellum Manuscript in Prose, containing seven Leaves, with two Columns in a page, - Not stitched. Signed on the first and last leaves, London, Jan.y 5th, 1803. John Mackenzie’. Mackenzie’s inscriptions are on what are now folios 1 verso and 2 recto. Four members of the Highland Society of Scotland Ossian Committee - John Campbell, Donald Mackintosh, Donald Smith, Lewis Gordon - added their initials at folio 2 recto. On the same page Ewen MacLachlan entitles the manuscript ‘War between Caesar & Pompey’.

Donald Smith’s (of the Highland Society of Scotland) description of it is in the ‘Ossian Report’, Appendix, page 305, with transcript and translation of part of folio 1, augmented from Adv.MS.72.2.27, page 317. He marked the pages, in the wrong order, A, AA, B, BB, C, CC, D1, D2, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M.

Ewen Maclachlan’s description is at Adv.MS.72.3.4, page 1, and his transcript at Adv.MS.72.3.5, page 149. There is also a fuller copy of the transcript, dated 25 May 1814: Ingliston MS. A.vi.1, pages 1-11. Graves examined the manuscript in 1848, describing it in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy’, volume 4, page 258. His suggestion that the colophon ‘appears capable of being revived by gallic acid’ seems, unfortunately, to have been taken up, with the result that it no longer fluoresces under ultra-violet light.

When the manuscript was bound in boards by Waterston’s, the wrong order established by Donald Smith was maintained. Its make-up can no longer be determined, but leaves appear to have been excised between folios 4-5, 6-7 and 7-8, and a quantity of text amounting to 8 folios (for which see below) is missing within the manuscript in addition to losses at both ends.

The manuscript contains the following marginalia.

(i) ‘Ri bia… breatha …a Tormaid . ith blicht ceobraena’, 2 quatrains. (Folio 1 recto.)

(ii) ‘...can ni . ...geis fo di no fo tri’, 1 quatrain. (Folio 1 verso.)

(iii) ‘A n-aimsir Tomais Oic Meguidir do bet ‘na rig ar Feraib Manac do sgrib Tadg O Cianan an leabarsa do...anno domini m.ccccl.xii(?)’. (visible under ultra violet light). (Folio 2 verso.)

(iv) ‘do bea… leam gu...’ (Folio 3 recto.)

The manuscript contains the following text.

An Cath Cathardha (part). Beginning, folio 2 recto, column a, line 1, ‘⁊ for nertad a muindt[er]i conebhairt’ = Adv.MS.72.2.27, middle of page 297 = “Irische Text emit Wörterbuch”, volume 4:2, page 1, line 2695. Stokes made little use of the present version in his edition, see pages VII-VIII. Text proceeds in following order: folio 2; Royal Irish Academy MS. D i 1, number I (= Adv.MS.72.2.27, page 303, line 18-page 317, line 1 = “Irische Text emit Wörterbuch”, volume 4:2, lines 2756–2877); folios 1, 4-7, 3, 8. Ends folio 8 verso, column b, last line, ‘i Tir dano a ndingeanta olcc mar sin cubaidh in chath mhor’ = Adv.MS.72.2.28, page 429, line 4 = “Irische Text emit Wörterbuch”, volume 4:2, line 3826. There are two lacunae. One (= Adv.MS.72.2.27, page 323, line 9 - Adv.MS.72.2.28, page 383, line 8 = “Irische Text emit Wörterbuch”, volume 4:2, lines 3447–3508) is due to loss of leaves between folios 1 and 4. The other is due to the mutilation of folio 4 itself, and consists mainly of a section = Adv.MS.72.1.28, pages 385, line 6-389, line 3 = Stokes, lines 3463-3493. For Sommerfelt’s description of the verbal system in Stokes’ text see ‘Revue Celtique’, pages 36-38, 40. See also Adv.MS.72.1.2, folio 115 recto, line 1.