Murchadh Ó Cuindlis
Irish scribe / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Murchadh Riabhach Ó Cuindlis (fl. 1398–1411) was an Irish scribe of the Ó Cuindlis family of brehons and scholars. Other renderings of his name have Muircheartach[1] or Murchad,[2] and sometimes Ó Cuinnlis.[3][4]
He was said to be a native of Bally Lough Deacker (today called Ballaghdacker, in Irish Baile Locha Deacair, in the parish of Athleague, which straddles north Galway and south Roscommon).[5] Ó Cuindlis was one of the scribes of the Leabhar Mór Leacáin ('Great Book of Lecan'), c. 1397–1418, under the guidance of Giolla Íosa Mor mac Donnchadh MacFhirbhisigh.[1] He was later the scribe of An Leabhar Breac ('The Speckled Book') at Duniry, 1408–1411; it is the largest Irish-language vellum manuscript attributed to a single scribe.[5] He is also credited with a third work, c. 1400, known as An Leabhar Ruadh Muimhneach ('The Red Book of Munster') or An Leabhar Ruadh ('The Red Book'), a genealogical work from which material was copied in 1621 by Mícheál Ó Cléirigh at Quin Friary, possibly examined in the 1630s by Antonius Bruodinus at the library of Moynoe,[3][2] and last seen (by Ó Cléirigh again) on 30 June 1634 at a convent in Thomond (County Limerick).[6] It is not to be confused with the much later An Leabhar Muimhneach ('The Book of Munster') or various other manuscripts called Red Book.