Book of Ballymote

Book of Ballymote, the (Leabhar Bhaile an Mhóta), a manuscript compilation of the late 14th cent. Its contents include genealogy, Auraicept na nÉces, Dinnshenchas Érenn, and Lebor Gabála. The book was presented to the RIA in 1785.

Irish name, Leabhar Bhaile an Mhóta. Compiled c.1390 in the Sligo town of Ballymote. Although much of the material in this Book is historical, it also includes important literary and imaginative items, such as the key to the ogham alphabet. There are bardic tracts on metre and grammar, stories of the birth of Cormac, and tales of the loathly hag transformed to a beautiful woman, as well as the Irish version of the Aeneid. The manuscript is housed today at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. Edited and published by Robert Atkinson for the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin, 1887).