| Rawlinson B 502 | |
|---|---|
| Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS B 502 | |
| Also known as | The Book of Glendalough, Saltair na Rann by Óengus Céile Dé (pt 2) |
| Type | codex, two miscellanies |
| Date | c. 1100 (pt 1); mid-12th century (pt 2) |
| Place of origin | a Leinster monastery |
| Language(s) | Middle Irish, Latin |
| Scribe(s) | two scribes (pt 1); one scribe (pt 2) |
| Material | vellum |
| Size | 175 folios on vellum and paper, including the binder's leaves[1] |
| Format | double columns |
| Script | Irish minuscule |
| Additions | glosses; additions by Ware |
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson B 502 is a medieval Irish manuscript which currently resides in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It ranks as one of the three major surviving Irish manuscripts to have been produced in pre-Norman Ireland, the two other works being the Lebor na hUidre and the Book of Leinster. Some scholars have also called it the Book of Glendalough, in Irish Lebar Glinne Dá Locha, after several allusions in medieval and early modern sources to a manuscript of that name. However, there is currently no agreement as to whether Rawlinson B 502, more precisely its second part, is to be identified as the manuscript referred to by that title.
It was described by Brian Ó Cuív as one of the "most important and most beautiful ... undoubtedly the most magnificent" of the surviving medieval Irish manuscripts.[2] Pádraig Ó Riain states ".. a rich, as yet largely unworked, source of information on the concerns of the community at Glendalough in or about the year 1131, and a magnificent witness, as yet barely interrogated, to the high standard of scholarship attained by this monastic centre."[3]