POETRY, HIBERNO-LATINReferences and Further Reading
Mac Cotter, Paul, and Nicholls, Kenneth. “Sir John ‘The White
Poer.’” The Pipe Roll of Cloyne, 144–148. Cloyne: 1996.
See alsoAnglo-Norman Invasion; Bermingham;
Gaelicisation; Desmond, Fitzgeralds of; Mac
Carthaig; Munster; Ormond; Waterford
POETRY, HIBERNO-LATIN
Hiberno-Latin Poetry is one of the most extensive
genres of Latin poetry to emerge from the West in
the early Middle Ages. Some of it is of an incidental,
spontaneous nature, but much of it is religious, devo-
tional, or hagiographic. It can best be dealt with
through its authors, since, unlike the bulk of
Hiberno-Latin literature, much of it can be attributed
(perhaps coincidentally) to named persons. The writ-
ing of Latin verse in Ireland extended into the late
Middle Ages.
Columbanus is the earliest composer of Latin poetry
from Ireland. The authorship of his works is contro-
verted, especially a group of six metrical poems, which
are disputed primarily because of their implications
for a knowledge of Classical literature in the early Irish
schools. The poems In mulieresandMonostichaare
unlikely to be his, but the internal textual evidence of
De mundi transituclearly shows it to be the work of
Columbanus. Some of the reasons recently adduced for
eliminating the others or attributing them to Columbanus
of St. Trond were subsequently refuted, but their
authorship still remains in doubt.
Colmán moccu Cluasaig (d. c.665) was abbot and
fer léigindof the monastery of Cork. His most impor-
tant composition, Sén Dé don de for don te(“God’s
blessing, bear us, succour us”) was composed, accord-
ing to the Liber Hymnorum, to avert the “Yellow
Plague” of 664–665. It is one of the earliest pieces
of macaronic verse in any western European vernac-
ular, interspersing Latin phrases into an Irish adapta-
tion of an early liturgical ordofor the dead. The list
of Old Testament saints invoked, Abel, Elias, and so
forth, betrays Eastern liturgical influence: nothing
like it exists elsewhere in Western Europe at this
early date.
Colmán is an otherwise unknown ninth-century
author of two well-constructed poems in Vergilian hex-
ameters on (1) a miracle of Brigit and (2) a farewell
salutation to a younger namesake of his, another
Colmán, on the eve of his return to Ireland (Colmano
versus in Colmanum perheriles). One manuscript attri-
bution names the author Colmanus “nepos Cracavist,”
a corruption of “ep(is)c(opu)s craxavit”—meaning.
“Colmanus the bishop wrote (this).” The poem on
St.Brigit (Quodam forte die caelo dum turbidus imber)
relates a version of the story of her hanging her cloak
on a sunbeam to dry, found also in a slightly variant
version in Vita I of Brigit. It seems to have been written
for someone who may have been composing a Life of
Brigit. The second is an envoito a younger compatriot
returning home (Dum subito properas dulces invisere
terras). It describes the dangers of the sea voyage ahead
of his companion and the sorrow of their parting, and
asks him to remember him, an old man. Both poems
are full of classical reminiscences from Virgil and are
good examples of Hiberno-Latin versecraft. There are
some striking similarities between the poem to Colmán
and the Ve r sus ad Sethumattributed to Columbanus of
Bobbio. The names of both writers are almost identical,
and therefore easily confused, so that it is certainly
possible that the ninth-century Colmán was the author
ofAd Sethum, formerly attributed to Columbanus.
Donatus, bishop of Fiesole, is the author of an epic
Latin poem in hexameters on St. Brigit, which drew
on earlier lives of that saint by Ultán, Ailerán, and
Cogitosus (qqv), as well as one “Animosus.” It has
been suggested that it was dedicated to the famous
Dúngal of St. Denis/Pavia. The poem, of which over
2000 lines survive, is replete with classical references,
which would indicate that his school had the facilities
to teach classical poetry.
Sedulius Scottus, Irish scholar and poet at the court
of Charles the Bald, was the most prolific and best
Latin versifier of the mid-ninth century. He is perhaps
best known for the 83 poems that he composed in a
variety of Classical Latin meters for his patrons,
friends, and colleagues, which rank him as the most
skillful poet of his day. His poetry can still be appre-
ciated for its inventive freshness, delicacy of sentiment
and humor. Among the addressees are his patron,
Hartgar of Liège, bishop Hilduin of Cologne, Eberhard
of Friaul, and Hatto of Fulda.
“Hibernicus exul” is an anonymous late eighth- and
early ninth-century Irish poet of the Carolingian
Renaissance. His two main pieces are a panegyric on
Charlemagne’s victory in 787 over Tassilo, duke of
Bavaria. The second is a poem in two parts, of praise
for and admonition to his students (Discite nunc,
pueri). He also wrote a piece for the imperial corona-
tion of Charlemagne in 800. The relative freshness of
his verse typifies the literary revival, which took place
under Charlemagne, though his poetic craft is not oth-
erwise of remarkable quality. His total output of 38
poems survives in a unique manuscript, Vatican, Bibl.
Apostolica, Reg. lat. 2078 (saec. ix in).
After the Anglo-Norman invasion, new schools of
Hiberno-Latin poetry emerged. Michael of Kildare, a
Franciscan friar, is author of some poems in British
Library, Harleian MS 913, written in the early four-
teenth century. The manuscript is of Irish origin and