Book cover, the cover shows a monk sitting in a pew and writing. In front of him is a book with the word Annals written in cursive. Above the monk is the title of the book “ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS” and the book author: Bernadette Cunningham. Under the picture are the words:”Irish history, kingship and society in the early seventeenth century”
Title: The Annals of the Four Masters
Full Title: The Annals of the Four Masters – Irish history, kingship and society in the early seventeenth century
Author: Bernadette Cunningham
Publisher: Four Courts Press
Published: 2014
ISBN: 9781846825385
Pages: 348 including Appendix, Bibliography and Index.
Synopsis:
Review: I honestly thought that I was getting an abridged version of the Four Annals when I bought this book. It was only when I started to read the book finally that I realized that this was not it. I still was not disappointed though and I will tell you why. This book is an amazing introduction to the Four Annals.
The text is made up of ten chapters, an Appendix which is an extract of the Annals of Lecan for the years 1451 to 1460, as well as an extensive Bibliography.
The first chapter is an introduction to the text. It tells you the aim of the text, who the four masters are, where the Annals are from, when they were compiled and what years they covered. Chapters two to nine analyze the Annals from the influences on the writers (political and otherwise) to the reason behind writing the history of Ireland in the form of Annals. The last chapter is a short roundup of the other chapters.
I found the Appendix with the extract from the Lecan Annals interesting to read after reading the chapters of the book. I found myself looking at the enters differently than if I was just reading them without having gone through this book.
I highly recommend reading this book first if you are going to read the Annals of the Four Masters.
Celtic Scholar's Reviews and Opinions 