The Book of the Burkes
Encyclopedia
The Book of the Burkes, illuminated
Illuminated
Illuminated may refer to:* Illuminated dance floor, a floor with panels which light up with different colours* Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house...

 Gaelic
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

, late 16th century.

A lavishly illuminated 16th century volume of seventy-five folios, twenty-two of which remain blank. It was made for Sir Seaán mac Oliver Burke, the McWilliam of Mayo. Sir Seaán was the McWilliam from 1571 to 1580, the book believed to have been the product of his patronage. Its production appears to have ceased upon his death, except for a few additions in 1584.

"It is, as far as we know, the last of the great family books written in Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

, but its text has remained rather bleak, the poems that were probably intended to fill the blank pages never having been copied".

The text is of two symmetrical documents in Irish and Latin respectively, containing many fanciful genealogical links between the Burkes and Charlemange, the Kings of Jerusalem, France and England. What distinguishes the Book of the Burkes from other late medieval Irish manuscripts is its
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