57 
life was printed; but there are so many arbitrary alterations, and such 
gross typographical errors in that edition—omissions frequently of whole 
sentences—that to Dr. Reeves belongs the honour of having, for the 
first time, given a correct and scholarlike edition of the text of this 
ancient and authentic work, retaining the curious orthography of the 
MS., which Colgan modernized; for in Colgan’s time the importance of 
retaining these seeming inaccuracies of spelling was not understood; but 
we now know them, very much from Dr. Reeves’s labours, to be of the 
greatest interest as being characteristic of the Latin MSS. written by 
Trish scribes, several of which exist in Continental libraries, and which 
are only now beginning to attract the attention of philologers. Dr. 
Reeves has given in his Preface a valuable table of these peculiarities, 
classifying them under two heads—interchange of vowels, and inter- 
change of consonants—and has compared them also with similar peculia- 
rities of orthography in the “‘ Book of Armagh.” 
In the copious notes with which this edition of Adamnan is enriched, 
Dr. Reeves has collected a vast body of historical and antiquarian infor- 
mation, throwing great light on the constitution, manners, and customs 
of the Scotic or Irish Churches of the seventh and eighth centuries. He 
has also identified, for the first time, the names of a great number of 
places mentioned by Adamnan, which had previously been unknown, 
and were indeed frequently misprinted, and, in some cases, altogether 
omitted by former editors. It will be seen at once what a very impor- 
tant evidence of the authenticity of the work may be derived from this 
circumstance; as it would have been impossible for any person not living 
at the period, and on the spot, to have introduced so large a number of 
true topographical names, the greater part of which are now identified 
. with existing (although obscure) places in the Scottish islands, to say 
nothing of the names of individuals and families which also may be iden- 
tified, and their dates fixed, by references to our native Irish genealogies 
and Annals. 
In the Appendix of Additional Notes, which occupies nearly half the 
volume, Dr. Reeves has given a number of most valuable dissertations 
on subjects requiring a more full illustration. One of these may be 
briefly noticed, although it is by no means the most important in anti- 
quarian and historical value; but its subject may be more easily ex- 
Péained, and it refutes a curious and wide-spread error, which it is now, 
perhaps, hopeless to correct,—I allude to the name of the island Iona, 
the seat of St. Columba’s most celebrated monastery. I have seen ety- 
mologies of that word by Scottish antiquaries, making it out to be a 
compound of 1-cona, or ‘island of waves,’ and I remember exciting 
the wrath of an antiquarian friend in Scotland when I ventured, some 
years ago, to express my doubts of that etymology. It has also been, 
with at least equal absurdity, derived from the Hebrew Jona, a dove, 
and explained as an allusion to the name of its patron saint, Columba. 
The Gaelic etymology, J-shona, or ‘‘ the happy island,’’ has also been sug- 
gested ; and all these puerilities are widely circulated down to the pre- 
sent day, in the tourist’s guide-books, and in other works of higher pre- 
R. I. ACAD. PROC.—VOL. VII. K 
