381 



in use before the Hieronymian Vulgate, and from which Je- 

 rome made the recension now known as the Latin Vulgate. 

 It was probably written, like the Vercelli manuscript, in gold 

 or silver letters, but the metallic surface, if what are called 

 gold and silver letters in this class of manuscripts be metallic, 

 has long since been rubbed away, and nothing now remains 

 but the traces of the original ink with which the letters were 

 described before the golden substance was applied to them. Of 

 this, however, we have no certain proof. 



It will be observed that this fragment is full of solecisms, 

 mistakes of the scribe, and misspellings, a circumstance very 

 common in the more magnificent manuscripts of the class to 

 which Dr. Todd supposes it to belong; for the artists who 

 excelled in penmanship and decorative skill were often very 

 incompetent as biblical scholars ; and the very costliness of 

 the material, and elegance of the writing, were obstacles to 

 correctness, for the scribe preferred leaving a mistake to spoil- 

 ing the beauty of his penmanship by attempting to correct it. 

 Thus we find dicentes for dicentis; parabolas for parabolam ; 

 ilium for illud ; persecutionem for persecutione ; bona for 

 bonam. 



DONATIONS. 



Antiquities from Dunshaughlin, viz.: A fragment of an 

 Iron Chain, consisting of twenty-seven double-looped links, 

 one Ring, and part of a Staple. A large Steel Knife or 

 Dagger. A Draughtsman made of Bone, mounted with 

 Bronze Pin. A Bronze Spear-head with double Blade, and 

 two lateral loops. Three Boar Tusks. The Bone of a 

 Cock's foot. 



A Stone Celt, from the county Antrim. 



A similar Stone Celt, found near the Falls of Niagara. 



A Steel Spear and Ferule, from the Gambia. 



A similar Spear, but larger, with small Trowel for Foot 

 of Shaft, used by the Mandingoes, from the Gambia. 



