146 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
When I first looked into the MS., I thought it probable that it was 
a copy of Atkynson’s translation, which I had never seen; but 
Dibdin, in the notes to his version of the Jmitatio, gives some extracts 
from Atkynson, and, on comparing them with the MS., I found the 
renderings quite different. My attention was then caught by some of 
the old words and forms used in the MS., and so I was led to enter 
on a thorough examination of it. At least one other copy of this 
early translation is, as we shall see, in existence; but no account of 
it has, so far as I know, ever been given, and I cannot but express 
my surprise that it has been so entirely overlooked. One reason for 
this, so far as the Trinity College copy is concerned, may have been 
that it has been, through ignorance or carelessness, erroneously 
lettered Musica Celi on the cover. This is seen at once by anyone 
accustomed to ancient writing, who examines the first page of the MS., 
to be a mistake for Musica Keclesiastica, one of the names by which 
the Jmitatio was designated, but which, from its comparative rarity, 
may have misled persons who looked into the volume as to its identity, 
and suggested the idea that it was a version of one or more of the 
other treatises of Thomas 4 Kempis. 
Neither Dr. Lyon nor Mr. Monck Mason seems to have been aware, 
in compiling their respective Catalogues of the Dublin MSS., that this 
book was the same with the Jmtation.1 Mason, after giving the title, 
‘Musica Ecclesiastica, written by Thomas a Kempis,” and the names 
of the three parts, adds this note:——‘‘ The following authority for 
this being the work of the above-named writer occurs in the margin— 
‘I do hear that this booke was made by one Thomas a Kempist; and 
lett a man looke in any chapter of the said booke, and he shall find 
something suitable to his condicion’ ; the date of the handwriting of 
this and of other notes, which are scribbled in the margin of the 
book, is probably about the year 1600.” Mason could scarcely be of 
opinion that such a note was any authority towards deciding the vexed 
question as to the authorship of the Jmctation; though in the case of 
a different work it would be evidence that it was attributed to the 
same author to whom the Jmtation has been generally ascribed. 
This title of Musica Eeclesiastica is given to the Jmitatio in several 
MSS. of the original, which are found in English libraries, and 
Mr. Kettlewell has suid (page 498 of his book on the authorship of 
the Jmitatio) that the title appears to be peculiar to the English copies. 
But this does not seem to be proved. Indeed, on page 91, Mr. 
Kettlewell cites the statement that ‘‘ Gabriel Naudaeus and several 
other learned men famed for their knowledge of ancient MSS. did de- 
clare that” the work ‘‘ was, in a// the most ancient copies, entitled De 
Musica Ececlesiastica.”’ My. Ruelens, the editor of the fac-simile ot the 
1 Mr. J. T. Gilbert, in his list of the MSS. of Trinity College, describes the 
volume simply as ‘‘ Works ascribed to Thomas a Kempis.’’—(Highth Report of the 
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, p. 588.) 
