227 



IV. The next portion of the volume contains three theolo- 

 gical treatises : 



1. A Sermon on the verse Novet in principio vigor is mei. 

 The initial letter N (which M. Champollion has mistaken 

 for F) is illuminated in red and ornamented, shewing that here 

 began a distinct book, which afterwards came to be bound 

 up with the rest, but has no other connexion with it. A fac- 

 simile of the beginning of this Sermon is given by MM. Cham- 

 pollion and Silvestre, in the Palceographie Universelle. 



2. Some Letters (apparently of Pope Innocent III.), 

 translated into Irish. 



3. A Dialogue between the Body and the Soul. This is 

 the same tract of which another copy occurs also in this 

 volume, in the portion of it written by Flathri for Donogh 

 O Brien. This is probably the original, for a note at the 

 beginning of it tells us that it was translated into Irish by 

 William Maguibhne [Mac Gawney], and that Daniel O'Con- 

 nell induced him to do so in the year of our Lord 1443. The 

 tract is imperfect, some leaves being lost between fol. 73 and 

 fol. 74. 



V. Then follows another collection of Lives of Saints, con- 

 taining three lives : this is the oldest portion of the MS. and 

 is unfortunately imperfect at the beginning. It appears from 

 the handwriting (for no other means remain of determining its 

 age), to have been written in the 14th, or beginning of the 

 15th century. It contains — 



1. A fragment of the Life of St. Patrick, imperfect at thp 

 beginning. 



2. TheLifeofSt. Bridgit. 



3. The Life of St. Brendan, imperfect in the middle ; the 

 defect is supplied, however, by a more recent hand : so that 

 the tract is complete, although not in its original state. 



VI. Next follow two tracts, written, as appears from a 

 note at the end, by Mailechlain, son of Ulan Mac an Legha, 

 for Donogh, son of Brien Dull O'Brien, " the head of the 



