358 
Armagh, it is to be observed that it does not necessarily indi- 
cate a greater antiquity than Mr. Graves has assigned to this 
manuscript. A decisive example of this kind occurs in the 
case of the great Bible of the Abbey of St. Germain des Prés, 
which, according to a note contained in it, was written in the 
eighth year of the reign of Louis le Débonaire, that is, A. D. 
822. The scribe of that manuscript has inserted in it two 
Latin memoranda, which refer to the fact of its having been 
executed by him, employing in both a Greek character, similar 
to that used in the Book of Armagh. 
His reason for doing so seems, in one case, to have been 
the desire to vindicate his right to the credit, of which some 
other scribe was depriving him. ‘* Obsecro te lector,” he says, 
**ne laborem manuum mearum despicias; sed queso deprecor 
mellifluam charitatem tuam ut pro me Domini misericordiam 
exores. Evio idem fero laborem, alius tollit honorem.” It must 
be inferred that the alius here spoken of was unacquainted 
with the Greek character, in which these words were writ- 
ten. In the other note the object of the scribe was plainly to 
exhibit his own skill and learning, and, at the same time, to 
test the intelligence of the reader. The passage, of which 
the first part is written in a strangely elongated cursive hand, 
and the last four words in Greek letters, runs as follows: 
‘* Supplicamus omnibus in Christo fidelibus qui hunc libellum 
ad volvendum ad legendum accipitis meam ne reprehendito 
insipientiam ;” which is immediately followed by the penta- 
meter, 
‘* Me quicunque capit rusticitate caret,” 
written in the ordinary hand. 
Nor was it only in the use of Greek characters that the 
scribes of those times displayed their pedantry. Sylvestre, in 
his Paléographie Universelle, vol. iv., describes a manuscript 
* Fac-similes of these two passages are given in the Nouveau Traité de 
Diplomatique of the Benedictines, vol. iii., pp. 186-437. 
