John Lynch's Alithinologia

JOHN LYNCH’S ALITHINOLOGIA (1664): CICERONIAN DISPUTATION AND CULTURAL TRANSLATION IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD1 Nienke Tjoelker Introduction John Lynch (c. 1600–1677) was an Irish priest. He was educated first in Galway and then in France. He took a doctorate, either in canon law or theology, from the University of Paris. Lynch returned to Ireland and was ordained in 1625, and then made archdeacon of Tuam in 1631. In 1652, Lynch fled to France, where he stayed for the rest of his life. Lynch made copies and translations of various volumes of Irish annals in the 1630s and 40s. His earliest surviving work is a translation, published 1652, of Geoffrey Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (History of Ireland) from Irish into Latin.2 Between 1662 and 1669, four books by Lynch were printed in France: the Cambrensis Eversus, the Alithinologia, Supplementum Alithinologiae, and Pii Antistitis Icon.3 This contribution will focus on the Alithinologia, a polemical text, published in 1664. I will (I) situate the Alithinologia in its historical context and (II) examine its Latinity. An analysis of the Latin of the Alithinologia can help us contextualise Irish Latin works among contemporary writings from the continent and develop a detailed analysis of the impact of humanist Latin upon the ori- gins of national identity in Ireland in the early modern period. Although no thorough study has been done of the stylistic characteristics of seventeenth-century Latin, it seems that Cicero remained the most impor- tant stylistic model for most humanists.4 1 I am grateful to Jason Harris and John Barry for proofreading this article and for their valuable comments and suggestions. 2 Cf. Éamon Ó Ciosáin, “John Lynch,” Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Accessed Nov- ember 30, 2009) http://www.dib.cambridge.org. 3 Lynch, John. Cambrensus Eversus, seu Potius Historica Fides in Rebus Hibernicis Giraldo Cambrensis abrogada (St Malo, 1662); Alithinologia sive veridica responsio ad invectam mendaciis (St Malo, 1664); Supplementum Alithinologiae (St Malo, 1667); Pii Antistitis Icon (St Malo, 1669); Cambrensis Eversus, ed. Matthew Kelly (3 vols, Dublin, 1848–52). 4 Cf. Hans Helander, Neo-Latin Literature in Sweden in the Period 1620–1720: Stylistics, vocabulary and Characteristic Ideas (Uppsala, 2004), which provides interesting infor- mation on common rhetorical devices and vocabulary in Swedish Latin texts from the 1120 nienke tjoelker I. The Historical Context of the Alithinologia Seventeenth-century Ireland had a mixed population, consisting of three groups: the native, or Gaelic Irish, the Old English, and the New English. The Gaelic Irish were the largest and oldest. The Old English, sometimes also called Anglo-Irish, then the principal landowners in the kingdom, were the descendants of English settlers who came to Ireland in the twelfth century. They had become assimilated into Irish culture, but retained the English language and culture for a great part. Ethnic tensions existed, although the ethnic boundaries between Catholics in Ireland became increasingly blurred through intermarriage and a common interest in land and political power in the beginning of the seventeenth century.5 Finally, the English settlers of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, who were mostly Protestant, were called the New English. Increasingly angry about the religious discrimination against Catholics in Ireland, in 1641 the native Irish of Ulster, led by Sir Phelim O’Neill, went into revolt. They forged an alliance with the Old English from the Pale, and the revolt spread quickly over the country. They formed a confederation known as the Confederation of Kilkenny, as they took Kilkenny as their seat of gov- ernment. In the period from 1642 to 1649, they effectively ruled Ireland, and engaged in a bitter conflict with royalists, parliamentarians, and Scots Covenanters. In 1649 it fell apart, and English authority regained its power. A controversy as to the causes and circumstances of the failure of this Confederation provides the theme of the Alithinologia. Lynch gives in this work a defence of the political and religious character of the Old English, in order to refute a memorandum submitted to the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in 1658 by the Irish Capuchin Richard O’Ferrall,6 period. A pioneering study of the Latinity of learned Neo-Latin of the period is given by Margaretha Benner, On the interpretation of Learned Neo-Latin: an explorative study based on some texts from Sweden (1611–1716) (Göteborg, 1977). Also cf. J. IJsewijn, “John Barclay and his Argenis, a Scottish Neo-Latin Novellist”, HL 32 (1983), 18–20; I. Kajanto, “Aspects of Spinoza’s Latinity”, Arctos 13 (1979), 49–83; I. Kajanto, “Spinoza’s Latinity,” in Fokke Akkerman and Piet Steenbakkers, Spinoza to the Letter (Leiden, 2005), 35–54. 5 Micheál Ó Siochrú, Confederate Ireland 1642–1649: A Constitutional and Political Analysis (Dublin, 2008), 17. 6 Richard O’Ferrall, “Ad Sacram Congregationem de Propaganda Fide. Modus et autho- res eversionis Catholicae religionis et regni Iberniae et nonnulla remedia ad conservan- dum ibi utriusque reliquias. 5 Martii 1658,” in Richard O’Ferrall and Robert O’Connell, Commentarius Rinuccinianus, de sedis apostolicae legatione ad foederatos hiberniae catho- licos per annos 1645–9, ed. Stanislaus Kavanagh (6 vols., IMC, Dublin, 1932–49), Appendix: .

Load more