82 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



centimetre in height, and the capitals sometimes double that. The line 

 of writing varies from 7'5 to 18 cms., and (not counting the commentary and 

 notes) there are from 14 to 18 lines of text to the page. In the text we find 

 a number of ornamental signs employed here and there to fill up space, thus : 

 : -J- — " — '— ' . . . ; and as signe dt renvoi to the marginal scholia O written 

 under or above the word commented upon. Sometimes two dots are placed over 

 or under letters 'e.g. e ) where no expunctuation is intended The punctuation 

 is marked by the three signs ., .., . and the words are clearly separated. A 

 calculation shows that assuming this MS. to have once contained the whole 

 Psalter, it must have consisted of about 216 folios. Indeed, it must have 

 been one of the finest of the later Irish MSS. Each of the sections into wbich 

 this Psalm is divided begins with a large illuminated letter, and each verse 

 with an ornamental capital of smaller size. These illuminated initials are in 

 the style of those of the Psalter of Bieemarch, which was written at the end 

 of the eleventh century. 1 The outlines are in black, sometimes with a 

 beast's head at one end, while the other terminates in a simple spiral 

 development. The interior spaces are filled in with patches of red, yellow, 

 purple, and green. Of the ancient geometrical pattern work, etc., there is 

 little or no trace. 



With regard to the date at which these leaves were written. A glance at 

 the MS. is sufficient to convince anyone acquainted with the palaeography 5 of 

 Irish mss. that the tradition connecting it with St. Caimin's time must be 

 dismissed at once. When we proceed to make a more careful study of 

 the writing — more especially of the pointed Irish minuscules of the prefaces 

 and marginal scholia, which were evidently written at the same time as the 

 text, and probably by the same hand— and of the con^ scriiendi and 



illuminations, we are led to the conclusion that this MS. must be assigned 

 to the latter portion of the eleventh or to the twelfth century. It exhibits 

 the closest resemblance in general details to such MSS. as the Trinity College 

 and Franciscan Libri Hymnorum, 5 the Gospels of Maelbrigte,* the Vatican 



Lindisfarne and Kells, the writing of our fragments appears degraded and betrays at 

 once its late origin. The same thing is to be said of the ornamental initials. 



1 Cf. Lindsay Vd$h Script, 1912, p. 64). 



- We are still without a scientific and exhaustive work on Irish palaeography. Much 

 preliminary ground has been already broken by the admirable researches of Traube and 

 Lindsay. A complete catalogue of all the extant Latin siss. written in Irish, or at least 

 insular, hands would be of great utility. The list of such mss. preserved in Continental 

 libraries given by W. Schultze (Centralblatt fur Bibliotheksu:esen, vi, 1889, pp. 287-295) is 

 neither complete nor always accurate. Workers on this subject will find Dom Gougaud's 

 Repertoire (Rerue Celtique, xxxiv, 1913, pp. 14-37) very useful. 



• Bernard and Atkinson (Irish Liber Hymnorum, i, 1898, plates i, ii). 



; Thompson (Introduction to Greeliand Latin Palaeography, 1912, p. 382). Compare also 

 the A hand of the Lebor na hUidre distinguished by Best (Eriu, vi, pt. 2, 1912, plate i). 



