Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/15

 doctor: 'De primo principio,' 'Theoremata,' 'Expositio in XII libros Metaphysicorum,' 'Quæstiones in metaphysicam Aristotelis,' Venice, 1497, and elsewhere; 'Comment, in lib. i. Sententiarum,' Venice, 1506; 'Comment. in lib. i. et ii. Sententiarum,' Paris, 1513; 'De Formalitatibus,' Venice, 1506, 1517; 'Collationes,' Paris, 1513. He was the author of an 'Expositio quæstionum Doctoris Subtilis in quinque universalia Porphyrii,' or 'Expositio in quæstiones dialecticas J. Duns Scoti,' begun at Padua and finished at Ferrara, 1499 (Venice, 1500, 1519); of critical treatises on the same doctor's 'Quæstiones in Metaphysicam,' 'De Primo Principio,' and 'Theoremata' (Venice, 1497; Paris, 1513), and of a short treatise entitled 'Enchyridion fidei,' or 'De rerum contingentia et divina predestinatione,' dedicated to Gerald Fitzgerald, the 'great earl' of Kildare (Venice, 1505). He also edited, while lecturing at Padua, a version of the four books of the sentences in hexameters called 'Compendium Veritatum' (Venice, 1505), and began an edition of the works of Francis de Mayronis (Venice, 1520). The 'Distinctiones ordine alphabetico' sometimes attributed to him were the work of a Friar Maurice of the thirteenth century.

A relative, (fl. 1506), wrote 'Irish Annals,' in Irish, dedicated to Florence O'Mahony, which were seen in manuscript in London in 1626 by Sir James Ware, but are now lost (, The Genealogy of Corca Laidhe;, Irish Writers, 1704, p. 23).



O'FLAHERTY, RODERIC (1629–1718), historiographer, born in 1629 in the castle of Moycullen, co. Galway, the ruins of which are still standing, was the only son of Hugh O'Flaherty by his wife Elizabeth Darcy. His family, whose tribe name was Muintir Murchadha, traced their descent from Flaibheartach, twenty-second in descent from Eochaidh Muighmeadhon, king of Ireland, who died in 366. They were at first settled in Magh Seola, to the east of Lough Corrib, but in the thirteenth century were driven from their original home by the O'Connors, and conquered a new territory in West Connaught from Lough Corrib to the sea. There were several septs of the clan, and Hugh O'Flaherty was head of that of Gnomore and Gnobeg in the barony of Moycullen. On the death of Hugh in 1631, his son Roderic, then in his second year, was the acknowledged heir, and became a ward of the crown.

Under the government established for Ireland by the parliament of England after the civil war, O'Flaherty was deprived of much of his property. Through an appeal at law in 1653 he obtained restitution of a considerable portion of his patrimonial lands, which, however, became of little value in consequence of heavy taxations and the general impoverishment of the country. O'Flaherty was educated in Galway, at the excellent school of Alexander Lynch, with whose son, [q. v.], author of 'Cambrensis Eversus,' he formed a lifelong friendship; and also came to know the learned Capuchin, Francis Brown (Ogygia, p. 30), bishop Kirwan of Killala, and other learned men. He studied Irish literature and history under [q. v.], then resident in the college of St. Nicholas in Galway.

In 1677 he recovered by legal proceedings a further small part of the lands of which he had been dispossessed, and in 1685 he published at London a quarto volume with the following title, 'Ogygia, sen rerum Hibernicarum chronologia.' The book was printed by R. Everingham,and the Irish type used in it (in quotations and in giving the true forms of names) is that in which the sermons 'Seanmora ar na Priom Phoncibh na Creideamh,' translated into Irish by [q. v] and John O'Mulchonn, were printed in 1711 by Elinor Everingham. In this work the author treats of the history of Ireland from the earliest times to the year 1684, with synchronisms and chrono-genealogical catalogues of the kings of England, Scotland, and Ireland to the time of Charles II. He shows a thorough acquaintance with the chronicle of [q. v.], with the manuscript known as the 'Book of Lecan,' with the 'Liber Migrationum' of [q. v.], and with much mediæval Irish literature. He had also read Bæda, Higden, and Hector Boece. He displays scrupulous accuracy throughout, and is a trustworthy guide to the history of the Irish kings. His work was the first in which Irish history was placed in a scholarlike way before readers in England, and it found its way into many good English libraries of its period. In a dedicatory epistle to James, duke of York, O'Flaherty mentions the old connection between Ireland and Scotland, and traces the descent of the royal family of England to the ancient monarchs of Ireland. He refers to his own misfortunes after the death of Charles I, and laments that the restoration