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XII. 

 COXCHUBRANI ^ITA SANCTAE MOXEXXAE. 



EDITEP, WITH AX DfTBODUCTION, 



r.Y MAPJO ESPOSITO. 

 (Platks Viri., IX.) 



B<^ Jm 27. Ordered for PoblicatioD JcxB 29. Published Octobeb 14, 1910. 



OCE principal authority for the life of St. Monenna, or, as she is sometimes 

 called, St. Darerca, is the Vita Sanctae Monennae compiled by an Ii-ishman 

 named Conchnbranus. This work is extant in one sis. only, the Codex 

 Cotton Cleopatra, A. ii, preserved in the Library of the British Museum. It 

 was printed from a transcript of this MS. by the Bollaiidists in 1721, in their 

 great c-ullection of Acta Sanctorum.' The etlition is, however, very defective. 

 I have counted not less than four hundred places in which the editors have 

 tacitly dc\iated from the reading of the MS. They have omitted all the 

 headings of the chapter^ the division of which, as marked in tlie MS., they 

 have disregarded. 



In the present edition I have endeavoured to give an accurate reproduc- 

 tion of the original M.S., including all the articles omitted by the BoUaudists. 

 and intro<lncing into the text no emendations or alterations of my own. In 

 an Appendix I have added six other pieces relating to St. Monenna, which 

 are foun<l in the same MS. Four of these are in verse and two in prose. Of the 

 poems two are alphabetical hymns in her honour, the first in 192 lines, and 

 the second in 92 lines. Neither of them has as yet been printed. The two 

 prose pifx-es are also, I believe, anecdota. One is a catalogue of Moneuna's 

 successoiB, and the other is a legend relating to her bed in one of the 

 monasteries she founded in Ireland. With the exception of some extraneous 

 matter liound in at the beginning of the volume, I have thus reproducer! 

 everything containe«l in the MS. 



In preparing this edition I have had the use first of photographs of the 

 MS., which the authorities of the British Museum kindly permitte<l me to 

 procure,' and secondly of an accurate collation of the MS. with the edition of 



■ AcU SuKtonuB, Jnlii toaiu ii, (olio ADtrniiue, 1721, pp. 297-312 ; ef. also pp. 241-246, 290. 



' T*o of tbeae pbotogn^* are reprodarad in the platet accorapanying the preacnt paper. 

 They hare been taken bj the aev photographic method for the cheap and rapid reprodactionof mmi., 

 which u nov in use in the principal librariea of Earope. bat vbicfa ii, I belicTe, practically DnhnoTn 

 in Itelaad. In this proceas the photograph ii taken directly on to lenstixed paper, then being no 

 iatetaealiatc ntgatiTe. The paper not being n perfect as the osoal drr-plate, the reaalt is als-aya 

 leas sharp thaa an or4iaary photograph : btit for its great rapidity and eoonoBy this process ia 



