Chronicle of Fortingall secured for the nation
National Library of Scotland has announced it has successfully acquired the ‘highly significant’ 16th-century Fortingall Chronicle for the nation, a companion to its Book of Lismore
The manuscript was compiled by scribes between 1544 and 1579 at Fortingall in highland Perthshire. It contains contemporary annals, poetry and other short texts in Latin, Scots and Gaelic.
The scribes belonged to the MacGregor family who also compiled the slightly earlier Book of the Dean of Lismore (also cared for by National Library of Scotland), the earliest surviving collection of Gaelic poetry compiled in Scotland. Scholarly research and evidence shows the two manuscripts were almost certainly compiled by members of the same family.
Manuscripts Curator Dr Ulrike Hogg said: ‘We consider the Chronicle of Fortingall a partner volume to the Book of the Dean of Lismore, the Library's single most important Gaelic manuscript and one of our greatest treasures.The two manuscripts are so closely connected that it's difficult to describe one without reference to the other. It's a great privilege for us to be able to bring the manuscripts together again after their compilation some 450 years ago'.
The acquisition was made possible with support from the Friends of the National Library, the Magnus and Janet Soutar Trust, the B.H. Breslauer Foundation Fund and the Leckie Family Charitable Trust.