Lawlok — the Cathach of St. Columha. 317 



finishing touches to his work ; and so the fraud is discovered. The sequel 

 we know, as O'Donnell relates it. Apart from its miraculous elements there 

 is nothing incredible in the incident. 



And a curious parallel is at hand. The Book of Durrow has the 

 following colophon : — 



Eogo beatitudiuem 



tuam see praesbiter 



patrici ut quicumque 



hunc libellum manu te 



nuerit memiuerit colum 



bae scriptoris . qui hoc scripsi 



(mi)hi[m]et euangelium . per xii. 



dierum spatium . gtia (?) dni iiri s. s 



Now there are three things to be noted here : first, that this fine copy of 

 the Gospels is called a libellus ; secondly, that the scribe is said to have 

 written it for his private use (mihimet) ; and, thirdly, that he did so in the 

 short space of twelve days — i.e. in a fortnight, excluding Sundays. It was 

 scarcely to be expected that the word libellus would be ajDplied to such a 

 manuscript as this, with its 250 beautifully written and illuminated leaves.' 

 It is difficult to believe that a copy of the Gospels, on which so much care 

 was lavished, was intended to be used by the scribe for the purpose of private 



' This word, however, is not applied exclusively to small books. Professor Lindsay 

 tells me that in the colophon of Paris, B.N., lat. 1603 (Canons), containing 202 leaves, 

 2 cols. 8vo, are the words : " Qui frequenter legit in isto libello oret pro soriptore." And 

 Mr. R. I. Best has been good enough to remind me of the pretty quatrain which has 

 the line : 



" Above my booklet (lebrmi), the lined one, the trilling of the birds sings to me." 

 Here the lebrdn seems to be the Ms. of Priscian in which the quatrain is written (Cod. 

 Sangall., 904 : see W. Stokes and J. Strachan, " Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus," ii, pp. xix, 

 290). But the St. Gall Priscian is a folio volume consisting, in its present imperfect state, 

 of 120 leaves, written in two columns of 42 lines (" Verzeichniss der Handschriften der 

 Stiftsbibl. V. St. Gallen," Halle, 1875, p. 319). We might suppose that in such cases as 

 these the scribe used a diminutive out of humility : a motive which is not likely to have 

 influenced one who wrote a colophon which he wished to pass off as from St. Columba's 

 pen. But this explanation will not serve for Cologne, Dombibl., MS. ccxii (Canons), 

 which has 172 leaves, 340 x 270 mm., with ornamental initials. In it (f. 167') is written 

 in an eighth-century hand Su/ibertus bindit {i.e. sold) libellum. (A. Chroust, " Monumenta 

 Palaeographica," Ser. ii, Lief, iv, Taf. 8 : a reference which I owe to Mr. Best.) On the 

 other hand, in the Colraar MS., Stadtbibl. 38, libellu.i is used of a single Gospel, though it 

 forms part of a volume containing all four (Lindsay, " Irish Minuscule," p. 18). The use 

 of the corresponding Irish word lebrdn for a transcript (above, p. 293, cp. p. 299, note) 

 should be noted. The exemplar from which it was copied is in the context regularly 

 called a lebar. 



