Book of Armagh

Book of Armagh, the (Liber Armachanus), a Latin manuscript compiled at Armagh in AD 807-8, contains the complete text of the New Testament, a collection of early texts on the Life of St Patrick, and a text of St Patrick's Confessio. It was presented to TCD in 1855.

Latin name, Liber Ardmachanus. Includes materials in both Latin and Irish begun about 807 AD by Feardomnach in Armagh, the seat of the primate of Ireland in what is now Northern Ireland. The passages in Irish are among the earliest we have. Many Latin passages deal with the life of St Patrick, and were once revered as being in his own handwriting. An 11th-century insertion about Brian Bórama (Boru) describes him as ‘The Emperor of the Irish’. The manuscript is housed today at Trinity College, Dublin. Ed. J. Gwynn (Dublin and London, 1913); Patrician documents edited by E. Gwynn (Dublin, 1937) and again by L. Bieler (Dublin, 1979).