134 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
“9, ‘Incipit libellus de miseria conditionis humane.’ This book be- 
gins thus: ‘Domino Patri Karissimo Petro Dei gratia 
Portuensi Episcopo Lotharius indignus diaconus, gratiam in 
presenti et gloriam in futuro.’ 
“This work is by Lothaire, afterwards Pope Innocent III., 
written whilst he was only a deacon, and dedicated to Peter, 
Bp. of Porto. It has been repeatedly printed. | 
“10. ‘Hic incipit tractatus quidem? speculum sive lumen laycorum.’” 
Here ends Dr. Todd’s description, which is accurate, except that 
he has omitted to mention short notes on the Ave Maria and on the 
celestial spheres. He has said nothing of the Speculum Laicorum 
beyond giving its title, and yet it forms the main interest of the 
volume, of which it occupies one hundred and forty-four folios, or 
about two-thirds of the whole. I cannot doubt that he had intended 
to examine it carefully, and was prevented by some interruption from 
carrying the purpose into effect. 
Before returning to the Speculum, I may mention the remaining 
contents of the volume. At the close of that treatise we have the 
words, ‘ Hic incipit liber qui vocatur Ancelmus [se] de morte,’ and 
at the end of this piece comes another with the heading, ‘ Hae sunt 
revelaciones Jhesu Christi domini nostri. Verba quae revelavit domi- 
nus Jhesus Christus servo suo nomine Alberto archiepiscopo civitatis 
Collonensis.’ With the conclusion of this piece the volume ends. 
Coming back to the Speculum, we find it to contain a vast body of 
moralized tales and anecdotes. Another copy of it, occupying the 
whole of a ms. volume of one hundred and thirty-three leaves of 
parchment, exists in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, very 
superior to the Derry volume in correctness of transcription and finish 
of execution, as well as earlier in date. It is written in a beautiful 
hand of the early part of the fifteenth century, and many of the initial 
letters are gilt or illuminated. Whether any third copy of the work 
is extant, I cannot positively state; but, as I have said, the best au- 
thorities do not mention any such. Mason, in preparing his Catalogue 
of the Trinity College uss., saw that the Dublin copy of the Speculum 
wants a leaf at the beginning; the contents of this are now supplied 
by the Derry copy. The leaf contained a curious preface in which the 
author states the motives which led him to compose the work®, and 
2 Rather gui dicitur.—J. K. I. 
’ The following are extracts from the preface :— 
‘¢ In Christo sibi dilecto quondam scolari et confratri moderno suus et suorum 
minimus feliciter vivere et in pace mori. Assumptus nuper ad animarum curam, 
de tui status debito sollicitus, erebris me precibus postulasti quicquam tibi scribere 
quod instruendis laycis amplius crederem expedire. . . Accipias igitur placide quod 
munus tibi pauper amiculus mittit exiguum. . . . Quoniam, ut dicit apostolus, lacte, 
