196 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



In the fore,2;oing list are enumerated forty-two MSS.^ Of these, thirty-one 

 represent the complete work, six omit the prologue and a few lines of the 

 first chapter, and the remaining five consist merely of brief extracts. Five of 

 the complete copies are as ancient as the twelfth century. These are Paris 

 Lat. 1956; Eouen, 665; Troyes, 280; Oxford Kawlinson C. 153 ; and Balliol 

 College, 229. 



II. — The Authokship of the Treatise. 



Tliat the " De Mirabilibus " is not the production of the great St. 

 Augustine is apparent to anybody who reads it through, and was realised 

 by the editors' who printed it among the Spuria. The evidence for the 

 authorship reposes on the following pas.sages : — 



(1.) The Dedication and Prologue, Ed. col. 2149 : " Venerandissimis' 

 urbium et monasteriorum episcopis et presbyteris, niaximc Carthaginensium, 

 Augustinus per omnia subjectus, optabilem in C'hristo salutem. 



" Beatissimi, dum adhuc viveret, patris mei Eusebii ad hoc opus praecepto 

 constrictus, adhortantibus etiam vobis Christianis, vel maxime venerandissimo 

 magistro imperii auctoritate compellente, tres de Mirabilibus Sanctae 

 Scripturae Veteris ac Novi Testamenti libros, historica expositione, quanta 

 potui brevitale, Domino annuente, composui." 



(2.) Ed. col. 2152: " Hoc' autem opus utrum intereat an maneat in vestro 

 pendet arbilrio. Ab uno enim vestrum, id est Bathano, post patrem 

 Manchianum, si quid inteUigentiae ab eo didici, et ab altero ut credo una 

 saliua oris eius, uicein laborum omnium suscepi." [MS. Harl. 4725 reads 

 Barbano, and uicem libroruin.] 



(3.) i, 7, Ed. col. v;l58 : " Qnis enim, verbi gratia, lupos, cervos, et silvati- 

 cos poreos, et vulpes, taxones, et lepusculos, et sesquivolos in Hiberniam 

 deveheret ? " 



(4 ) ii, 4, Ed. cols. 2175-2176 : " donee decimus [cyclus] inde oriens 



nonagesimo secundo anno post passionem Salvaloris, Alia et Sparsa consuli- 

 bu8, peractis cursibus consummalui-. Post quem undecimus a consulatu 



' The Library of Syon Monastery, Isleworth (suppressed in 1539), possessed three 

 copies of the "De Mirabilibus." lu the Catalogue drawn up about l.~)26(ed. M. Batoson, 

 1898, pp. .51, 96, 120), these were noted under the pressmarks, E. 53, fol. 53; M. 5, 

 fol. 83 ; N. 14, fol. 7. I am not aware that these yma. are now in existence. 



' St. Thomas Aquinas ("Summa Theologiae," Pars iii, Quaest. 45, Art. 3, tomus xi, 

 Romac, 19<i3, p. 4rt2) had already pronounced it spurious. 



' The reading of the mss. varies between feneraudlMiml/ and Veneratistimis. 



* I give this pa.s»age according to the reading of the British Museum and Brussels M88. 

 The text as presented by the printed editions is here unintelligible, and has clearly 

 embarrassed Dom Gougaud ("Lea Chretient^s Celtiques," 1011, p. 256). 



