Áed Ua Crimthainn

Áed Ua Crimthainn (fl. 12th century), also called Áed mac Crimthainn, was abbot and coarb of Terryglass (Tir dá Glas), near Lough Derg in County Tipperary, Ireland. He was the principal scribe of the Book of Leinster (in Irish Lebar na Núachongbhála, the Book of Oughaval, an important Middle Irish medieval illuminated manuscript, and is also believed to have been its sole compiler.

Áed signed himself Áed Ua Crimthainn.

Áed was a scholar and a descendant of an old ecclesiastical family of County Laois who were the comarbai (heirs) of Colum moccu Loigse, the 6th century founder of the religious house of Terryglass and a friend of Colum Cille. He was the temporal, if not the spiritual, head of Terryglass, succeeding Finn mac maic Chélechair Ui Cheinnéidig, who died in 1152. It seems that Áed himself had no successor and was the last coarb, as Terryglass was burned down in 1164 and was then dissolved by reforms later in the century.

Áed was a friend of Finn mac Gussáin Ua Gormáin, bishop of Kildare and abbot of Newry, who sometimes collaborated with him. Both Finn and Gilla na Náem Úa Duinn assisted Áed with compiling the Book of Leinster.

According to a note in the Book of Leinster "Áed Ua Crimthainn wrote the book and collected it from many books". It is a literary compendium of stories, poetry, and history, and it appears from annals included in it that it was written between 1151 and 1201, although largely completed by the 1160s. The last entry in the manuscript in Áed's hand which can be dated appears to belong to the year 1166.Gerald of Wales saw the book when he accompanied his cousin Strongbow on his invasion of Ireland and said of its illuminations that they were "the work of Angels".

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