342 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



The truth is that sexaginta novem is an unwarrantable and absurd 

 interpolation, which can be accounted for only by some misappre- 

 hension of the text; and the manuscript affords a most amusing 

 solution, in that it exhibits the contraction of the syllable bus in such 

 a form that the copyist took it to be the numeral 69. 



This noble manuscript has the folios numbered in a hand of the 

 commencement of the seventeenth century. The numeration extends 

 to 158 folios;* but 32 had perished at the beginning, before the 

 Yolume was bound in its present form, which was about a hundred 

 and fifty years ago. At that time the leaves were cropped at front, 

 top, and bottom, so that the original dimensions of 14f by 10^- inches 

 have been reduced to their present size of 1 3f by 9^ inches. However, 

 the binder's plough was not so ruthlessly employed on this book as on 

 the Book of Kells in Trinity College, where venerable Irish charters 

 were unsparingly mutilated for the sake of producing a clean face ; 

 for in this manuscript the marginal notes, which ran close to the 

 edge, were spared, and folded over, and thus escaped the trimming to 

 which the blank spaces were subjected. 



The writing is in double columns, each measuring Hi by 3£ 

 inches, with an average of 44 lines. These are in this paper indi- 

 cated by the letters a and b, which also indicate the "recto" («) 

 and "verso" (b) of each page. It appears to belong to a late 

 period in the fourteenth century, but not to be all in the same hand. 

 The form of the letters is not Irish, except occasionally in proper 

 names, and where Irish words are introduced, but rather in the monastic 

 style of the day. All the saints whose lives go to compose the volume 

 are Irish, except St. Antony of Padua, and his, though imperfect, is the 

 opening one of the volume as it now stands ; suggesting the idea that 

 the compilation was made for the use of some Franciscan house. 



The following is a catalogue of the contents, in their existing 

 order : — 



1. Vita S. Antonii [de Padua], commences fol. 33 a a, ends 34 ba~ 

 The recto of fol. 35 is blank, as also col. 1 of verso. 



2. Vita S. Flannani, a fragment, defective at beginning and end. 

 It occupies fol. 35 bb ; after which fols. 36, 37, 38 are wanting. This 

 was St. Plannan, the patron saint of Killaloe, whose day is the 28th 

 of December. 



3. Vita S. Columba? abbatis, fols. 39 aa to 51 ba. This is St. 

 Columba, abbot of Hy, whose day is the 9th of June. This life, by 

 Adamnan, was carefully collated by me, and the various readings 

 given in my edition of Adamnan, Dublin, 1857. 



* At the end there is a quarter folio, having some irrelevant matter very much 

 discoloured by tincture of galls, biit in which are the words, " Et ego f rater Antho- 

 nius de Clane," and the date MDXV. 



