274 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Ps. exxxii. aBS : thox, eccUsiae. 



a adds orantis ; S adds regnantis. 



In these rul3rics the combination aS indicates a reading of the copy of B 

 which lay before the translator of S. By means of them our argument is 

 therefore considerably strengthened. For we learn that eight psalms, which in 

 the printed text of B are without headings (Pss. i, xxi, xlv, Iviii, cxiii), or have 

 headings dissimilar to those of a (Pss. cxiv, cxviii, exxxii) had in this S text 

 headings exactly or approximately identical with those of a. Thus the 

 number of striking coincidences between o and B is increased to 121. In 

 one of the psalms just mentioned (Ps. cxiv) we are able to recognize an 

 addition to the heading, beginning v.cl cuiuslibct, as an insertion which is 

 to be ascribed, not to Bede, but to some later scribe or editor of his work. In 

 like manner a similar addition to the heading of Ps. liii vanishes from the 

 text. Thus there disappear the only double headings which we have hitherto 

 noted in B, and in their place remain headings almost identical with those 

 of a. And with these additions to the headings of Pss. liii, cxiv, a whole class 

 of clauses, of which they exhibit the type, becomes suspicious.' Comparison 

 with S also restores a portion of the liturgical note of Ps. Ixxxiii in B, of which 

 the printed text preserves not a word. In other cases a rubric, which in 

 the printed text resembles that of a, is found in the S text to have 

 resembled it more nearly (Ps. xciii), or to have been identical with it 

 (Pss. Ixxxix, cviii). In other words, it has been shown that the earlier 

 text of B was more like that of a than the text which is now in our hands. 



And a moment's reflection convinces us that this conclusion may be carried 

 further. The translator of S* did not always take his rubrics from Bede's 

 arguinenta ; still less did he always confine himself to that part of the 

 argitlnenta with which we are concerned ; and he sometimes, no doubt, made 

 mistakes in transcribing Bede. Moreover, some of his rubrics are lost. Thus 

 it is in comparatively few cases that S gives us any material to work upon in 

 restoring the text of B. And we must also remember that though S had 

 a better text of B than ours, it by no means follows — indeed it is most 

 improbable — that it was an exact reproduction of the autograph. In short, S 

 proves that in more than a dozen rubrics B resembled a more closely than 

 the printed text warrants us in assuming : it suggests that in many other 

 rubrics, in regard to which it gives us no direct help, the resemblance was 

 as great. 



' E.g., the B heading of Ps. liv, though it is supported by S ; and the addition to the 

 heading of Ps. cxxv in R. See above, pp. 2G9, 272. 



2 Perhaps I should rather say the editor of the Psalter from which the rubrics were 

 derived, for they seem to have come from a source different from that of the text. 



