AN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF IRELAND, FROM FIRST INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE IRISH, TO THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. COMPILED FROM THE WORKS OF THE MOST ESTEEMED AUTHORS, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC, WHO HAVE WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED ON THE MATTER CONNECTED WITH THE IRISH CHURCH; AND FROM IRISH ANNALS AND OTHER AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS, STILL EXISTING IN MANUSCRIPT. (FOUR VOLUMES, COMPLETE)

Dublin Ireland: J. Cumming. Simpkin and Marshall, and R. Cadell and Co, 1829. Second Edition. Hardcover. Very Good Plus. Matching set of four: Octavos, 8.7 in. x 5.4 in. Volume I, pp. xi, [1], 496; Volume II, pp. 494; Volume III: pp. 493; Volume IV, pp. 506. Rebound in dark red three-quarter calf decoratively ruled in blind over marbled boards. Four raised bands with gilt band lines, to spine. Gilt title on black panel, Author's name & respective volume numbers in plain gilt to a lower compartment. Marbled edges. Recent endpapers. Unmarked interiors; bright, tight textblock. Lanigan, John (1758-1828), priest and ecclesiastical historian, was born at Cashel, Co. Tipperary, the eldest of sixteen children of Thomas Lanigan... Educated at his father's school, and at the Rev. Patrick Hare's (protestant) academy in Cashel, he decided at an early age to become a priest, and was encouraged by the archbishop of Cashel, Dr James Butler II, who in 1776 enabled him to go to the Irish College in Rome for training. In London he fell victim to a confidence trickster and so arrived in Italy penniless. Very quickly his scholastic ability and learning earned much notice, and after he was ordained priest he was invited to teach at the University of Pavia, eventually becoming professor of Hebrew and scripture. In a damaging error of judgement, he attended the ill-fated council of Pistoia in 1786, a pro-Jansenist synod later denounced by the pope. Although he did not speak, his attendance was later used against him by his opponents. ... In 1796 Lanigan returned to Ireland, and applied for the vacant chair of sacred scripture and Hebrew at Maynooth College, but he refused to accept the position in protest at being asked to sign an anti-Jansenist formula designed by the suspicious bishop of Cork, Francis Moylan . Appointed assistant librarian to the RDS in 1799, his knowledge of French, German, and Italian promoted his application. There he took a major interest in the veto controversy in 1808 and helped to direct public opinion against it with a series of letters written under the pseudonym ‘Ireneus'.... In 1822 he published his magnum opus, "An ecclesiastical history of Ireland from the first introduction of Christianity among the Irish to the thirteenth century", in four volumes, which he had begun in 1799. In this landmark contribution to the history of the church Lanigan engaged in furious scholarly debates; for example, he accused Edward Ledwich of over ninety errors in The antiquities of Ireland (1790). In his final years Lanigan suffered a nervous breakdown and he retired to an asylum in Finglas, Co. Dublin. He died 7 July 1828, and was buried at Finglas church. (from Dictionary of Irish Biography).