Publication of Early Literature

While the creation of new literature ceased during most of the nineteenth century a new interest, scholarly and historical rather than literary, was developed in the preservation and study of existing literature. It was an interest shared in only by an intellectual and cultured minority, but it resulted in the publication of a number of works which had lain in manuscript for many centuries The patriotism and learning of small groups of individuals who succeeded one another throughout the century rescued from oblivion some of the most important collections of the ancient literature.

Above: Photo of Standish Hayes O’Grady

These were now collected and compared and edited with translations and notes by the ablest scholars of the day. In Ireland the greatest of those scholars were Windisch, Zimmer and Kuno Meyer,(1809-61), a native of Co. Kilkenny, and Eugene O’Curry (1796-1862) a native of Co. Clare, and they were followed by many others amongst whom the names of Standish Hayes O’Grady and Whitley Stokes are prominent as editors of various texts. On the Continent the foundation of modern Irish scholarship was laid in Germany by Zeuss, who published his ” Grammatica Celtica ” in 1853,. and he was succeeded in Germany by Windisch, Zimmer and Kuno Meyer, and in France by De Jubainville, and by others in those countries, and in Denmark, Norway and Italy. Both in Ireland and in various European countries the study and publication of Irish literary works have been carried on in recent years by a numerous band of zealous and able scholars.