Muirchú Moccu Macthéni's 'Life of Saint Patrick'

David Howlett

'Offers genuinely fresh insights, highlighting the sophistication of early Insular hagiography as Muirchu "launches the boyish rowboat of his little intellect" (prologue P. 41) in a time when the archaeological record for the early Irish church is still very bare', Deirdre O’Sullivan, Journal of Medieval Archaeology (November 2007).

‘A new look at Muirchú’s work and in particular its style … The new book on Muirchú is the latest in his detailed analyses of Hiberno Latin and Celtic-Latin works of the early medieval period … Howlett adds more discussion of numerology than he has displayed in earlier works. The names of people, places, and nations which Muirchú mentions in the course of his text are analyzed according to the “gematria” number system – that is, each letter has an equivalent number, and adding them all together can result in a single number which may be significant … [T]he book is a solid and important contribution to the study of Hiberno-Latin literature, and to Patrician studies in particular. I am especially impressed by Howlett’s use of the evidence derived from his analysis of the techniques of composition to help establish the text of the work … The most important contribution of this work may be the things Howlett says in the last few pages … Howlett has given scholarship a new point from which to begin’, John Higgins, Kritikon Litterarum.