The volumes consists of two separate manuscripts.

The first, which ends at folio 27, may have once formed part of the manuscript that constitutes the Yellow Book of Lecan columns 573-958 (see Ó Con cheanainn, “Gilla Ísa Mac Fir Bhisigh and a Scribe of his School”, page 157.

The manuscript is written in the following hands:

1. Text, folios 1 recto-5 verso, column b, line 40, 9 recto-22 verso. Gilla Ísa Mac Fir Bhisigh, poet and historian to Ó Dubhda Tír Fhiachrach (Barony of Tireragh, County Sligo), circa 1400. See Ó Concheanainn, “Gilla Ísa Mac Fir Bhisigh and a scribe of his school” (1974), where his hand is illustrated in photographs from the Yellow Book of Lecan and Adv.MS.72.1.8, folio 16 verso (plates 1, 2).

2. Text, folios 5 verso, column b, line 40-6 recto, column a, line 27. Similar in style to text-hand(s) of Adv.MS.72.2.3.

3. Text, folios 6 recto, column a, line 28-8 verso, 23 recto-27 verso. (?) Tomás Cam Mac Fir Bhisigh, son of Gilla Ísa (hand 1). See Ó Concheanainn, “Gilla Ísa Mac Fir Bhisigh and a scribe of his school”, page 157, with photographs showing his hand from the Yellow Book of Lecan, the Great Book of Lecan, National Library of Ireland MS. G 4, Royal Irish Academy MS. D i 1 and Adv.MS.72.1.8, folios 23 verso, column b, 25 recto, column b (plates 3-7). Some careful decoration; note particularly a cross marking a double death at folio 26 recto, against which he writes the names of the deceased.

4. Text, folios 28 recto-37 verso. A large, bold hand with distinctively back-tilted descenders on ‘r’. He begins sections with impressive zoomorphic initials. Capitals coloured in silver which has oxidised and soaked through the vellum; some red also. Reproduced from folio 29 recto (upper half), in ‘Scottish Studies’, volume 21, plate 1.

5. Text, folio 29 recto, column a, lines 29-42; notes, folios 7 recto, 14a recto, 16 verso, 18 verso, 23 recto, 24 verso (?), 25 recto, 29 recto, 35 verso; textual emendation, folio 30 recto, column b, line 27 (?). More than one style. Fearghus (folio 7 recto, 25 recto) Ó Fearghail (folio 18 verso) ó Albuin (folio 29 recto, column a, line 42). He refers twice to Mac Cailín, his chief and patron (folios 24 recto, 29 recto, column a, line 29). Despite its distinctive small-looped ‘g’, his hand seems to be shared by Rudhraidhe, his father or grandfather (Adv.MS.72.1.1, hand 10; Adv.MS.72.1.5, hand 5) and by Conaire mac Muiris Uí Mhaol-Chonaire (Adv.MS.72.1.15, hand 6).

6. Note, folio 2 recto.

7. Notes, folios 2 recto, 3 recto.

8. Notes, folios 3 recto, 8 recto, 18 recto.

9. Note, folio 7 recto.

10. Notes, folio 8 verso. A good formal hand.

11. Notes, folios 8 verso, 9 recto. Remarkably small hand, only 1 millimetre high.

12. Note, folio 10 recto.

13. Note, folio 15 recto.

14. Notes, folios 16 recto, 23 verso.

15. Notes, folios 30 recto, 35 verso.

16. Notes, folios 32 recto, 33 recto. Dolbh? (An Ó Duibhgeannáin name).

The manuscript contains a number of marginalia as given below. The number of hand is given in brackets following entries. Many of the marginalia are cited, with translations, in Calder, ‘Togail na Tebe’, pages xv-xvii; cf. also Plummer, “On the colophons and marginalia of Irish scribes’, page 30.

(i) ‘amen dico vobis’ (?unknown hand). (Folio 1 recto (1).)

(ii) ‘f….fl….a re fear…..’ (hand 6). ‘Bennacht uaimse caim a cenn’ (hand 7). (Folio 2 recto (3).)

(iii) Alphabet; ‘&, et, est, amen’ (hand 8). ‘Is bal . dob[er] Dia for m[a]c nghar . isbhal dob[er] snidim bal . for m[a]c isgar nad ingar’ (hand 7). (Folio 3 recto (5).)‘an’ (?unknown hand). (Folio 3a recto.)

(iv) Illegible (hand 5?). (Folio 6 verso (12).)‘Misi Fer. Misi Fergus do scr’ (hand 5, visible under ultra violet light). ‘Misi fein gidh be me’, 3 lines (hand 9). (Folio 7 recto (13).)

(v) ‘Ihc’ (hand 8). (Folio 8 recto (15).)In the middle of the blank at the foot of this page is “Ní heasbaid an bánsa a ndeiread na duilleoigi acht a easbaid arna comlanachad” (hand 3): ‘This blank at the end of the page is no omission, for its omission has been supplied’ (i.e. by hand 1, folio 9 recto). Hand 11 adds ‘Ni deiread dom thon[us] fein m[ur] frith in meagh eorna sin anois’. In the remaining spaces are the following. ‘Ni hairccet fint fochmen forruph forut ruphai sul taisecc aduth di air antar agaid can airccit acht cu nguaire gluntar’ (hand 10: cf. Stokes “O’Davoren’s glossary”, page 340). ‘A fhir oir sin, a fir oir’, 3 quatrains (hand 10). ‘Comortus uaimsi risin lit[ir] sin thuas ar chaile. Ailim Dia comurle maith dam a ceannt[ar] ⁊ a n-allt[ar]. Sin a Diarm. Sin a Diarm[uid] gles mo bu…. Areime ar (?)mac ……’ (hand 11). (Folio 8 verso (16).)

(vi) ‘A mhic Muire, a Finnguala bec, is garb do grabthog’ (hand 11). (Folio 9 recto (17).)

(vii) ‘fechain gles ann so’ (hand 12). (Folio 10 recto (19).)

(viii) “A Dhé ⁊ a Muire, is mór an buile phleite sin do bhí ar Líogurus a caoin[edh] a thsentacharáin mhíththap[aidh] ag tabhairt ar Ghrégaibh bheith ag mill[edh] a n-oir ⁊ a n-innmusa” (hand 5). (Folio 14a recto.)

(ix) ‘Uch mo nuar on uch mo nuar’, 1 quatrain; illegible note (hand 13). (Folio 15 recto (29).)

(x) ‘Is mor in magadh do Gregaibh ar mills[e]t da maith[e]s ⁊ da maoinaibh ar son leiniph big’ (hand 14). (Folio 16 recto (31).)

(xi) “Is maith an beim ceast sin do bhuail Ailcidamus ar Chapaneobhus mór mac Tairsis gan bhuidheachus do fen” (hand 5). (Folio 16 verso (32).)

(xii) ‘Ihc’ (hand 8). (Folio 18 recto (35).)

(xiii) “Ihc Maria, a Mhuri foir orum. Misi Fergus Ó Ferghuil” (hand 5). (Folio 18 verso (36).)

(xiv) ‘Isa’ (?unknown hand). (Folio 22 recto (43).)

(xv) “Is mitabaidh an foraire sin do rinnedar na Tíabhannaidh arna Greagaibh ⁊ gan mosgladh dhóibh pfein as chcolladh no gur mar….” (hand 5). (Folio 23 recto (45).)

(xvi) ‘sin’; “misi mé fein” (hand 14). (Folio 23 verso (46).)

(xvii) “Comortus ann so re fern a leitrecha so híos” (hand 5?). (Folio 24 verso (48).)

(xviii) “Misi Fergus ⁊ ata me córa fliuch do thscoth a fec….. mo triath bunuidh .i. Mac Cailin……fein……a dannta ⁊ an b…..ar b……” (hand 5, visible under ultra violet light). (Folio 25 recto (49).)

(xix) ‘fech[ain] gl[esa]’ (?unknown hand ). (Folio 27 verso (54).)

(xx) ‘Fech[ain]u gl[es]a pinn occos duibh’ (hand 5). ‘I nomine patris ⁊ fli[i] ⁊ sp[iritu]s s[an]c[t]i amen’ (written twice, probably in at least one case by hand 5. The same occurs in a similar hand in British Library MS. Add. 19,995, folios 4 verso, 5 recto). (Folio 29 (28) recto.)

(xxi) Two largely illegible notes (hand 15). (Folio 30 (29) recto.)

(xxii) ‘Misi do l’ (hand 16). (Folio 32 (31) recto.)

(xxiii) ‘Misi’ (hand 16). (Folio 33 (32) recto.)

(xxiv) ‘…f[er]….an domain…’ (hand 4?). (Folio 34 (33) verso.)(xxv) ‘Comortus ann so risin bfear do sgribh an leabharsa ⁊ ni holc sgriopthar e’ (hand 5). Illegible note (hand 15). (Folio 35 (34) verso.)

The contents (text) is as follows.

(i) Togail Tebe. Beginning ‘Araili ri uasal oruindneach onorach rogab forlamus (⁊) ferandas arin ardchathraig n-alaind n-aibind, arin Teib’. Lacuna due to loss of leaves between folios 22-23. Deaths marked by crosses. Ends “Conad ní da ngnimaib ⁊ da scelaib ⁊ da n-imteachtaib conuigi sin. Sella. Sella. Sella. Finit”. Edited by Mackinnon to folio 20 verso (40), column a, line 35, in ‘The Gaelic version of the Thebaid of Statius’; also edited by Calder, ‘Togail na Tebe: the Thebaid of Statius’. (Folio 1 recto (1), column a, line 1.)

(ii) Caithréim Chellacháin Chaisil. Beginning ‘Raigh oirrdhirc airdmeanmnach rogabasdair flaithius ⁊ forlamhus for da coicead Muman’. Folio 28 recto partly illegible, folio 28 verso almost totally so. Breaks off incomplete at folio 29 recto, column a, line 28, ‘budh libh fein bhur leasa ⁊ bar laithreacha. Biaidh Luim’ = Bugge, (editor) ‘Caithreim Cellachain Caisil’, page 5, 1.4. Cf. Ó Corráin, “Caithréim Chellacháin Chaisil: history or propaganda?”, page 1. (Folio 28 (37) recto, column a, line 1.)

(iii) Hand 5 (black ink). “Suirghech me re Mac Cailin . can re rí deigtshíl Duibhne”. (Folio 29 (28) recto, column a, line 29.)

(iv) Hand 5 (brown ink). On the attributes of the provincial kings, their kingship and their people. Beginning ‘Ri Cais[il] .i. a icht amuil chraibtech, a mhuinnter amuil bheocha, a righi amhuil chuiluibh’. Edited (from the Great Book of Lecan) by Ó Raithbheartaigh, ‘Genealogical Tracts’, volume 1, page 189. Ends ‘Finid. Misi Ferghus o Albuin’. (Folio 29 (28) recto, column a, line 30.)

(v) Togail Troí, 2nd recension. Prologue beginning ‘Baei tra forbairt ar claind Adhaimh gu dilind’ = Adv.MS.72.1.15, page 1, column a, line 1. Ends in dry point ‘Fini amen’; hand ?5 adds ?‘amhona’. Prologue repeated folio 29(28) verso, column a, line 1. First section beginning folio 29(28) verso, column a, line 23, ‘Roghabh ri uasal oirdinti righe in domhain .i. Sadurn mac Palloir’ = Adv.MS.72.1.15, page 1, column a, line 29. Ends ‘Brollach tindsgeadail so anuas, loingeas Iason so sis ⁊ argain na Traeeadh’. Next section beginning (folio 30(29) recto, column a, line10) ‘Dogeinir d[an]o righ amhra oireaghdha don ceineol rigda sin’ = Adv.MS.72.1.15, page 2, column a, line 38 = Book of Ballymote, folio 412, column a, line 28. Ends ‘conad I sin aidhig Iason ⁊ Eachta ⁊ Media ⁊ sgel in croicind orda conuigi sin. Imdeacta Earcail ann seo sis’. Next section begins ‘Ba cuimhneach tra la Hearcoil’ = Adv.MS.72.1.15, page 7, column b, line 37. Ends ‘Finit amen. Finit’. Next section beginning folio 35 (34) verso, column a, line 16, ‘Sosar cloinde Laimidhoin .i. Priaimh’ = Adv.MS.72.1.15, page 14, column b line 1. Ends incomplete at folio 37 (36) verso, column b, last line (due to missing folios) “na bid do meanma fortsu [etir[, ar se” = Adv.MS.72.1.15, page 19, column a, 3rd last line = Book of Ballymote, folio 425, column a, line 6. See Adv.MS.72.1.15, page 1,column a, line 1. (Folio 29 (28) recto, column b, line 1.)