368 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



handabout three hundred years old : — 1re tm "oo 'ouibteojMb pt inn 

 LeAb&fifo 1 cine "otnbbeo^^ if "oeicb pchic icep bee ocur mop. 

 em^-tro <jui -pc]iibpc in -pirn /ynnpA gpi&n&n . . . ipirnun&ch 

 in bb^'OAin TO/vm — " The number of leaves contained in this book 

 is five leaves and ten score (205) including both the small and the 

 large ones. Emand [Edmund] qui scripsit the enumeration in the 

 Grianan . . . Irisnunach in this year in which I am." 



A subsequent entry on the blank page [105] shows a deficit of five 

 folios : -oucenuA pobiA. <\utse peppupmxi rmpo tibpo, which may 

 be rendered — " Two hundred folios which I have cursorily gone over 

 in this wonderful book." And it is quite evident from the following 

 entry on the foot margin of p. [259] that the leaves had become de- 

 tached and distributed between different persons so early as the year 

 1583. tThp in hlcsX) "oo bebop &n cbobb^ig aca &p i&p\ch at: 

 l^eAAn OClieipin octir* i-ppe&pp pernm An ch^bb-M^b -pem "oiom 

 niA peienu q-e^&n. Anno t)omini 1583. " I am the portion of 

 the Colbach's book which is on loan with John O'Ceirin (Kerin), and 

 the title of the Calbhach himself to me is better than the title of John. 

 Anno Domini 1583." 



The detachment and distribution of the manuscript in this manner 

 led to the loss of several staves and folios of the vellum, as is evident 

 from the various gaps and chasms now remaining, and from the fact 

 that eleven folios of it have been discovered in the manuscript collection 

 at St. Isidore's at Rome. These folios, too, appear to have been de- 

 tached at an early date, and to have been lent for literary purposes. 

 Dr. Todd throws out the conjecture (n.^ p. 376) that they might have 

 been lent to Colgan, yet he does not say by whom. Though Colgan's 

 handwriting remains, in three different places on the detached folios, to 

 testify that they were in his possession, there is reason to believe that 

 they became detached long before his time ; that they came into his 

 possession indirectly, and that they were regarded by him as belong- 

 ing to the Franciscan Convent of Donegal. The following are the 

 three entries in Colgan's handwriting, already referred to: — (1). On 

 the front of the vellum wrapper in which the manuscript is bound : 

 " Martyrologium Tamlactense et opuscula St. JEngusii Keleiei.' n (2). On 

 the second folio, page 1, foot margin, is the following: " Exlibrit 

 Conventus Dungallensis ;" and (3) on the last folio of the stave, page 2, 

 foot margin, the same note is repeated. 



At folio clxxxxvii., page [269], the following entry, written in 

 English characters and in a hand about two hundred years old, points 

 to a gap of eight folios — a full stave — between folios clxxxxvi. and 

 clxxxxvii., pages [268-9], where, notwithstanding the consecutiveness 

 of the old pagination, there is a chasm as indicated ; the tale of the 

 Inebriety of the Ultonians terminating abruptly with folio clxxxxvi., 

 page [268], and followed at folio clxxxxvii., page [269], by the story 

 of the destruction of Dindrigh. I have noted down all such defects in 

 my examination of this manuscript, and shall mention them further on. 



