The Rev. J. H. Todd on an Ancient Irish Missal. 17 



The remarks I have to make on this most interesting MS. are necessarily 

 very imperfect, being almost entirely the result of recollection. Lord AsH- 

 BUENHAM did not permit me to transcribe anything, and I was, therefore, forced 

 to content myself with a careful perusal of the MS., comparing it as I read 

 with Dr. O'Conoe's description of it. 



The book contains, first, the Gospel of St. John ; and, secondly, the Missal, 

 or rather Sacrmnentarium (for it includes the rites of baptism); written in dif- 

 ferent hands, and at different periods. 



Dr. O'CoNOR has given a fac-simile of the first two pages of the Gospel of 

 St. John, — the first page representing the emblem or figure of the Evangelist, 

 holding his book, with the symbolical eagle over his head ; the second con- 

 taining the beginning of the first chapter of St. John. This portion of 

 the MS. (if I mistake not) is in a handwriting not later than the seventh 

 century. 



At the end of the Gospel of St. John are these words: — 



" Deo gratias ago, Amen. Finit, Amen. Eogo quicunque hunc librum 

 legeris, ut memineris mei peccatoris scriptoris, .i. mi m ii ' -^ peregrinus. 

 Amen. Sanus sit qui scripserit et cui scriptum est, Amen." 



This gives us the name of the writer, "Sonid Peregrinus," or "Sonid 

 the pilgrim ;" for the word in Ogham characters is Sonid, if read directly 

 as it stands ; but inscriptions of this kind, and especially names, were often 

 written backwards ; and the name before us, if so read, will be Dinos ; 

 but I can find no mention of Sonid or Dinos the pilgrim in any of our 

 records. The "&nMs sit" of the last line seems to favour the former 

 reading. 



The Missal, as I have already said, is in two different hands. It seems to 

 have been originally written in what I have called the Lombardic character, 

 and afterwards altered, to adapt it to a different Ordo, or form of Liturgy, by a 

 more recent hand. Dr. O'Conor has given a fac-simile of a page of this MS., 

 in which may be seen the difference of the two hands; the text of the MS. 

 being in the older or Lombardic hand, and the rubric at the top of the page 

 in the more recent characters. 



Dr. O'Conor remarks that the improvements made in the Roman Missal 

 since the days of Berno, who died about A. D. 1047, — improvements which 

 VOL. XXIII. c 



