McManus Damian. Guide to Ogam

Maynooth, Co. Kildare: An Sagart, St Patrick’s College, 1997. — 225 p. — (Maynooth Monographs 4).The book is divided into eight chapters, the first of which is a general introduction, followed by a survey of the problems of establishing the origin of the script and the identity of the alphabetic prototype. In Appendix 1 I have presented the texts and translation of the Old Irish Briatharogam, which I have edited and commented on in detail elsewhere. Chapters four to six deal with the orthodox Ogam inscriptions and in Appendix 2 I have discussed my own readings of some of the inscriptions in Macalister’s Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum and attempted to bring it up to date by publishing inscriptions discovered since 1945. In the last two chapters the later manuscript tradition of Ogam has been investigated and its general importance assessed. Abbreviations have been kept to a minimum and a key to those used in the Bibliography will be found on page 186. For ease of cross-reference the first digit in paragraph (§) and note (n) numbers indicates the number of the chapter to which they belong. It was not thought necessary to repeat this digit in the notes themselves.