176 



side from similar injury. It got at length into the possession of Dr. 

 Thomas Harrison of Nenagh, from whom I purchased it. 



This Box contains a copy of the four Gospels in Latin, written 

 in the Irish character, and upon vellum. The character may be cal- 

 led either Saxon or Irisli, as we find in it all the letters which are 

 common to both, but none of those which are peculiar to either, 

 excepting the q, the use of which is unavoidable in the writing of 

 Lath\. Neither the th, or tiie w, peculiar to the Saxon, nor the mor- 

 tified letters, which are exclusively Irish, occur ; it appears, however, 

 fiom an inscription at the end of the MS., that it was written by an 

 Irishman. The period of the writing does not appear ; but it was, in 

 all likelihood, anterior to the Norman Conquest of England. I 

 have compared it with the Book of Durham in the British Museum, 

 (the date of which is inscribed in it by the writer,) and with other 

 MSS, in that repository, in company with learned antiquaries; and 

 the result of this comparison was, that it was written, most pro- 

 bably, in the 9th century : the embellishments of the paintings, and 

 the illuminations, will also suit with this conjecture. 



With regard to the version of this copy, it is certainly very ma- 

 terially different from the two Vulgates of Sabatier, and the four 

 Latin Translations of Blanchini ; it also varies from the four most 

 ancient and interesting Latin Versions preserved among the MSS. in 

 theLibraryofour University, viz. A. I. I. A. 1. 5. A. 4. 6. and A. 4. 

 15. Two verses may suffice to shew this. I shall select the commence- 

 ment of the 19th chap, of St. Matthew, which is thus, " Et, inde ex- 

 " surgens, venit in fines Judge ultra Jordanem, et convenerunt iterum 

 " turbae ad eum, et, sicut convenerunt, rursus docebat illos." 



St. Jerome's Versio antiqua. — " Et factum est, cum locutus esset 

 " sermones istos, transtulit se a Galilaea, et venit in finibus Judaeae et 

 " trans Jordanem, et secuta? sunt eum turbse multse, et curavit eos ibi. 



