I sometimes wonder how scholars a hundred years ago did anything at all. Right now, I am tracking down manuscript references to the Finnṡruth Fíthail, which were gathered by Roland Smith in the early part of the 20th century. He wrote it in the most confusing style ever. No tables or transparent references. It is mostly in the style of "oh, here is a reference and here is a further reference and here is the text of the first reference", which makes it difficult to track down especally when they are in footnotes rather than in the main text. Also, because there are no editions to anything, it is all manuscript references so you get, "and in MS H.5.15, you have the entire Finnṡruth Fíthail." Well, if you did not know that H.5.15 was at Trinity College Dublin, you would be in major difficulty. Couple this, with the fact that Trinity has changed all the manuscript from the H.5.15 style to TCD MS 13-- style (I have not yet found any easy table to figure out the old marking from the new one) and you get a huge headache.
posted by Chris #3:01 PM | 0 comments |
