178 



Vienna, holden in the year 131 l.f This text is of itself suffici- 

 ent to make the MS. which I now describe as containing it to be 

 considered as curious. 



The genealogy of our Lord agrees with that received into the 

 version of the English church, excepting that it omits Levi, 

 who was the father of the grandfather of Joseph. This copy 

 has the division by Ammonian sections, and has not the addita- 

 mentum in Matt. xx. 28. The writhig on the first page is the 

 finest I have ever seen ; but it becomes less and less elegant at 

 every page; until, at the conclusion of the book, it is .exceedingly 

 bad. But the gradual deterioration proves that it is written by 

 one scribe. 



There is, at the end of the Gospel of St. Luke, some general 

 prayers for the dead ; and, at the conclusion of each book, an in- 

 cription in Irish, or in Latin, from which we can only learn the 

 name of the writer. 



Two leaves have been lost, which contained from Mark, ii. 5. to 

 iii. 24. and Luke xiv. 18. to xv. 18. 



Preceding the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, 

 are very curious coloured representations of those Evangelists ; and, 

 before that of St. John, is the eagle, which has, from the first ages 

 of Christianity, formed his emblem. The costume of the figures 



f The text rested indeed upon the slightest authority, existing only in four MSS. of the 

 hundreds collated by Mill, Wetstein, and their predecessors, and in the works above al- 

 luded to. I find' it in several of the most ancient vulgate copies, that were written in 

 Ireland, and exist in the College library, as in A. 1. 5. and A. 4. 6. it is also in some others. 

 Birch asserts, in his edition of the Gospels, that it is to be found in the Vatican MS. one 

 which is surpassed by none in antiquity, and by few in importance ; but I doubt the fact, for, 

 were it the case, it could not have escaped the knowledge and the notice of Wetstein, who 

 does not mention it. 



