"This place I could not see, because I was unwilling to look into it"

"This place I could not see, because I was unwilling to look into it"

Lough Derg--Travelogue--Dublin--Journey

An sixteenth-century letter describing a trip to Lough Derg

Francesco Chiericati, c.1480-1539

Francesco Chiericati's letter to Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, p. 11

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts

1516

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork. J. P. Mahaffy. Electronic edition compiled and proof-read by Beatrix Färber, Janet Crawford. Article written by J. P. Mahaffy; the tour by Francesco Chiericati (c.1480-1539), written 1516, has been translated by J. G. Smyly (1516 (original); 1914 (translation).

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Electronic text transcription

English translation

Article containing translated letter

DD_0584

54.608913,-7.870977

https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100081.html

"The Purgatory is situated in the following manner. First there is a small church with stone walls, which looks like an oratory; behind the church, to the north, is a small dwellinghouse, made of planks, for the three resident monks. Close by is another small dwellinghouse, also made of planks, for the pilgrims. Before the door of the church, over the lake, towards the west, are three bells (bee-hive cells?), dedicated one to St. Brigid, another to St. Patrick, and the third to St. Columba. Behind the church, to the east, is the Purgatory. The door, which is made of iron, is about three cubits from the ground. The Purgatory is a grotto made in the rock, on the level of the ground; it enters so far that twelve persons can stand at their ease in it. It is two and a-half cubits wide. It is true that at the back the grotto turns aside for two cubits, where, they say, St. Patrick used to sleep. This place I could not see, because I was unwilling to look into it, being terrified at the things which are said about it; but I stood three paces away from the door. The monks entered into it with two pine torches, and I looked carefully at everything straight in front of me; but there was nothing to see except rock. At the turning of the grotto there is a round stool, which looks like a mill-stone; when it is struck it seems to respond like an echo. They say there is a well there and that this is the origin of the stories which are told of the well of St. Patrick."

J. P. Mahaffy, Two Early Tours in Ireland in Hermathena, Ed. Members of Trinity College, Dublin. , Dublin; London, Hodges, Figgis & Co. Ltd.; Longmans, Green & Co. (1914) volume 40page 1–3; 10–16