Esposito — On the so-called Psalter of St. Caimin. 81 



The first attempt at a really critical study of the MS. was made in 

 Oetober, 1871, by the Italian Celticist Nigra, who spent several hours in the 

 Monastery of Sant' Isidore He discovered the Irish glosses in the MS., and 

 assigned it to the middle of the eleventh century. Nigra' s results were only 

 published in 1885 by D'Arbois de Jubainville. 1 Shortly afterwards D'Arbois 

 contributed a further note on the glosses. 2 



In the meantime, in 1872, by permission of the General of the Franciscan 

 Order, all the Irish MSS. at Sant' Isidoro were transferred to the Franciscan 

 Monastery, Dublin, where they now are. 



The Celtic scholar Hennessy 3 published in 1873 a superficial account of 

 the MS., and in the following year Gilbert mentioned it briefly. 4 Neither of 

 them questioned its traditional antiquity. 5 Some years later (1884) Gilbert' 

 reproduced four lines from the first page and a number of ornamental 

 capitals. 7 He then stated that it " can scarcely be ascribed to a date so early 

 as that of St. Caimin." 8 The MS. was seen in 1897 by Bruun, 9 who correctly 

 dated it "about 1100"; and finally the Irish Glosses were edited by Stokes 

 and Strachan, 10 and Gwynn, 11 who supplied no information as to its date or 

 characteristics. 



II. 



The " Psalter of St. Caimin " consists of six unbound and dilapidated 

 folios of fairly thick parchment, which appear to be now undergoing a process 

 of gradual decomposition, no doubt the effect of dampness. These leaves 

 contain a portion of Psalm cxviii (verses 1-16 and 33-116) in the Vulgate 

 version with marginal and interlinear commentaries and scholia, and some 

 Irish glosses. The latter are on folios la, 3a, 4a, 5a, 55, 65. The format is 

 large folio, the largest page measuring 36 cms. x 26. A modern hand has 

 numbered the pages in the lower margins 1 to 12. The ruling cannot be 

 clearly discerned. The text of the Psalm is written in long lines in a large 

 and beautiful semi-imcial Irish hand, 12 the ordinary letters being nearly a 



1 Bibliotheaue de I'Ecole des Ohartes, xlvi, 1885, pp. 344, 345. 



2 Revue, Celtique, vii, 1886, p. 96. 



3 Irish Ecclesiastical Record, ix [1873], pp. 241-247. 



* Historical 3ISS. Commission, Fourth Report, 1874, Appendix, p. 601. 



5 Hennessy expressed a doubt as to its being the actual work of St. Caimin, but stated 

 that it was certainly as old as the Book of Kells. 



6 Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland, part iv, 2, 1884, Appendix, plate xxii. 

 ' The reproduction is of little value from the palaeographical point of view. 



8 Loc. cit.. Introduction, p. cxii. 



9 Enquiry into the Art of the Illuminated MSS. of the Middle Ages, part i, 1897, 

 pp. 83, 84. 



10 Thesawrus Palaeohibemicus, i, 1901, pp. xiv, 6. u Eriu, 1910, iv, p. 182. 



12 Compared with the beautiful rotund hands of such early MSS. as the Books of 



