320 
occupied by the name, there is not room for more than seven 
or eight letters. On these grounds Mr. Graves concludes 
that the name was that of Torbach, whose death is thus 
recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters : 
Cl. C. 807. Topbach mac Sop- | A. D.808. Torbach, son of Gor- 
main Scpibnid, Cegtoip, 4 man, Scribe, Lecturer, and 
abb Cpoa Maca epide, do | Abbot of Armagh was he, of 
¢enel Topbaig, eadon, O | the Kinel Torbaigh, i. e. of 
Ceallaig Speas. | Hy-Kelly of Bregia. 
Introducing then the name of Torbach, Mr. Graves pro- 
poses to restore the whole passage thus : 
F pomnacu- HVNC- LIB 
E RVM- E DICTANTE 
R ToRBACH - HEREDE - PAT 
RICII - SCRIPSIT 
Torbach held the primacy, according to the catalogues of 
the Psalter of Cashel and the Leabhar Breac, for a single year; 
and his death took place on the 16th of July; ‘* colitur 16° 
Julii,” says Colgan, T. T. p. 294. Since, then, the writing of 
the Gospel of St. Matthew in the Book of Armagh was 
finished on St. Matthew’s festival day, the 21st of September, 
and during Torbach’s primacy, it must have been in the year 
807. | 
If we could be quite sure that the half-erased name ter- 
minated in bach, there would remain no reasonable ground for 
doubting the conclusion at which Mr. Graves has arrived. 
For the satisfaction, however, of those who may not partici- 
pate in the certainty which he feels as regards this point, he 
thinks it right to notice the following circumstances, which, 
although not deserving the name of proofs, tend in some de- 
gree to confirm the probability of his conjecture. 
The Torbach abovementioned having been himself a scribe 
of Armagh, the copying of the precious manuscripts of the 
