The Folios - f.iiv
Added texts in French, Gaelic and Latin
Originally blank leaf with 14th-century additions in French, Latin and Gaelic. The earliest addition is a thirteen-line prayer in French addressed to the Virgin and written to be said by a female reader. This is followed by a two-line Latin prayer to a guardian angel, again intended for a female reader. Some time later in the 14th century or perhaps early in the 15th century several lines of Gaelic were written above and below the French and Latin prayers. The hand is probably the same hand as that of the Gaelic texts on folio (i)v. The orthography used in writing the Gaelic is, like the later Book of the Dean of Lismore, based on that used for Scots rather than on traditional Gaelic spelling conventions. This and the condition of the text make the interpretation problematic but it is clear that the text is a charm. For a transcription, commentary and translation by Ronald Black see John Higgitt, The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and Gaelic West. The French, Latin and Gaelic additions are all designed to protect the user from either spiritual or physical dangers.
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