Latin Learning in Medieval Ireland

The field of Hiberno-Latin literature, a term coined to describe the Latin literature written in Ireland, or by Irishmen abroad, between 400 and 1500, was first defined by the late Mario Esposito. His work, too, revealed its vast extent and range, so enabling a significantly better understanding of the importance of Irish scholarship in the cultural history of the Western Middle Ages. This volume concentrates on Hiberno-Latin authors, and on texts composed in Ireland; a second collection of Esposito’s articles contains studies on Irish learning and texts written on the Continent. The great strength of his research is that it is founded on unparalleled knowledge of the manuscripts - many of which, indeed, no longer survive. The articles, now provided with extensive indexes to facilitate their consultation, therefore form the essential basis and guide for any further enquiry into the authors dealt with or their works.

Contents: Foreword; The Latin writers of mediaeval Ireland , with supplement and bibliography; Notes on Latin learning and literature in mediaeval Ireland; The knowledge of Greek in Ireland during the Middle Ages; On the earliest Latin Life of St Brigid; On the ps.-Augustinian treatise "De mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae"; A 7th-century commentary on the Catholic Epistles; An apocryphal "Book of Enoch and Elias" as a possible source of the Nauigatio S. Brendani; Indexes.

Mario Esposito, Michael Lapidge