RCB Library Notes04 Apr 14

Medieval French Literature Experts Make Irish Connections through the RCB Library

A recent visitor to the RCB Library has been Dr Keith Busby, Douglas Kelly Professor of Medieval French in the University of Wisconsin at Madison (pictured right). Professor Busby, who specialises in medieval French literature and the study of literature in its manuscript context, is working on a book on ‘Medieval Franconia’ which will include a chapter on the use of French in medieval Ireland. In the Library he was consulting the 14th century Red Book of Ossory and the14th century Liber Niger of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, both of which include French texts.

Co–incidentally, at the same time another American academic who specialises in medieval French literature sent a copy of his latest book to the library. Dr Brent Pitts, who is Professor of Foreign Languages in Meredith College, Raleigh, North Carolina, has just published The Anglo–Norman Gospel Harmony.

This is a English translation of Professor Pitt’s 2011 book, Estoire De L’Evalgile, an edition of an anonymous mid–13th century Anglo–Norman gospel harmony the only known text of which is in the Liber Niger of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin.

A gospel harmony interweaves the narratives of the four gospels ‘into a mosaic of the life Christ, removing repetitions, smoothing contradictions, and recasting common episodes with details from two or more gospels’. The Liber Niger is on display in the Treasury exhibition in the crypt of Christ Church cathedral.