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    Poetic Law and the Medieval Irish Linguist: Contextualizing the Vices and Virtues of Verse Composition in Auraicept na nÉces


    Hayden, Deborah (2011) Poetic Law and the Medieval Irish Linguist: Contextualizing the Vices and Virtues of Verse Composition in Auraicept na nÉces. Language and History, 54 (1). pp. 1-34. ISSN 1759-7536

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    Abstract

    Doctrine concerning the faults and correctives of poetic composition in the medieval Irish grammatical treatise Auraicept na nÉces, ‘The Scholars’ Primer’, illuminates not only our understanding of the Auraicept’s complex textual transmission, but also aspects of the relationship between linguistic and legal learning in early Ireland. This contribution examines parallels between the Auraicept’s stylistic teaching and similar material found in other texts from the medieval Irish literary canon, and considers the significance of this doctrine in relation to the literary portrayal of satire as a potential regulatory force in society. Against this background, it compares the arrangement of material pertaining to stylistic devices in two distinct manuscript copies of the Auraicept that have previously been identified as belonging to separate recensions. It is argued that such a preliminary investigation may serve as a useful diagnostic to highlight some of the issues involved in a larger-scale study of the Auraicept’s textual transmission.

    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: Auraicept na nÉces, Bretha Nemed Dédenach, early Irish law, language study; Latin grammars; medieval Ireland; poetry; rhetoric; satire;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > School of Celtic Studies > Early Irish (Sean Ghaeilge)
    Item ID: 6628
    Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1179/175975311X12979556801710
    Depositing User: Deborah Hayden
    Date Deposited: 27 Nov 2015 16:08
    Journal or Publication Title: Language and History
    Publisher: Maney Publishing
    Refereed: Yes
    URI:
      Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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