Seanchas Búrcach
TCD 1440 (F.4.13). 16th century. Vellum.
The Seanchas Búrcach was compiled in the 1570s for Seán Mac Oliverus Burke who held the title MacWilliam from 1571 to 1580. He commissioned the work to demonstrate his civility and honourable ancestry and to strengthen his status as lord of the MacWilliam Burkes. It contains an account of the family's rights and properties and asserts a shared ancestry with Queen Elizabeth I.
The opening section is in Irish, followed by similar material in Latin. The manuscript is unique because of the sequence of fourteen portraits and religious images contained in it. These include scenes from the Passion of Christ and portraits of the influential ancestors of Seán Mac Oliverus Burke from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The scenes of the Passion are reminiscent of the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer. The Seanchas Búrcach is a rare survival of a propagandist text which documents the history of a Gaelicised lordship.
