318 



The Annals of the Four Masters contain entries respecting 

 two persons of this name, both of them scribes. 



A. C. 726. pfpoomnach fjfulJ- 



nfoip Qpoa ITIaca b'ecc. 

 A. C. 844. Peapoomnach eaj- 



naioe -] pjpibnio cojaioe bo 



ihuTMcip Qpoa ITlaca o'ecc. 



A. D. 727. Ferdomnach, Scribe 



of Armagh, died. 

 A. D. 845. Ferdomnach, a sage 



and choice scribe of the church 



of Armagh, died. 



The fact that both these persons were scribes of Armagh, 

 where this manuscript was preserved for so many centuries, 

 renders it in the highest degree probable that one or other 

 was the writer. The names of between thirty and forty per- 

 sons, who held the office of Scriba or Scholasticus in Armagh, 

 are enumerated in the Annals of that see, given by Colgan 

 in his Trias Thaumaturga. But of all these there were only 

 two Ferdomnachs, the two already mentioned. 



Assuming, then, as it seems safe to do, that one or other of 

 these persons was the scribe of the manuscript, Mr. Graves 

 proceeds to fix the actual year in which it was written. He 

 thinks that he has effected this by partly deciphering the writing 

 in the erasure No. 2. This erasure consists of four short lines; 

 and the original writing was in a semi-Greek character, the 

 nature of which is exhibited in the following passages, con- 

 taining nearly all the letters of the Roman alphabet. The 

 first is one of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, as given in 

 St. Matthew's Gospel, fol. 36, a. The second is a memoran- 

 dum occurring in the very column at the foot of which is the 

 erasure under consideration. 



^T Kv^ 4'^MiTv/:>vc • 



PANEM 

 NOSTRtTM • COTIDIANDM • DA 

 NOBIS • HODIE • 



EXPLICIT . AEVANGVE 

 LION • RATA • MAT 

 TEVM • SCMPTVM : 

 ATQVE FINITVM • 

 IN FERIA • MATTEI • • 



