Lawlor — The Cathach of St. Columha. 321 



of which Columha was not averse when occasion called for it. But the very 

 fact that he undertook it in this instance indicates that there was in the text 

 of his exemplar something which distinguished it from that of other 

 manuscripts which he already possessed ; that it was a text which he deemed 

 worthy of special study. It indicates also that the exemplar did not belong 

 to him, but was borrowed, and was at his command only for a limited 

 time. If so, it was probably of a type rarely found in Ireland at that 

 period, if not unique. For it is clear that Oolumba, while still a young man, 

 had attained a position which would have made accessible to him almost any 

 text of which more than one or two copies existed in the north or east of 

 Ireland. And we need no proof that his exemplar was a Vulgate Gospel- 

 book. He transcribed, we may suppose, one of the first, if not the very first, 

 of such books to arrive on these shores. The likeness of the situation revealed 

 by the phenomena of the Book of Durrow to that revealed by O'Donnell's 

 story is too close and too striking to be mistaken ; and it confirms our faith 

 in the historic value of the tale of Finnian's book. 



But since the rarity of Vulgate Gospels in Ireland in Columba's time is of 

 some importance for our argument, I may be permitted to mention a further 

 proof of it. It appears that when the illuminations of the Book of Durrow 

 were executed illuminated Vulgate Gospels were still not easy to procure. 

 For in it the full-page representations of the evangelical symbols are 

 misplaced, the Lion being assigned to St. John instead of to St. Mark, and 

 the Eagle to St. Mark instead of to St. John. This may be explained if we 

 remember that the present order of the Gospels was introduced into the West 

 by St. Jerome, the Old Latin order being Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. The 

 Durrow illuminator would naturally seek a model for his symbols in some 

 other illuminated manuscript. The one which he actually used followed the 

 non-Vulgate order, in which John was second and Mark fourth.' Thus the 

 transposition of the symbols is accounted for ; but this way of accounting for 

 it presupposes that illuminated Gospel Books of the Old Latin type were 

 more easily accessible than those of the Vulgate type. 



By way of confirmation of this conclusion attention may be called to an 

 acute remark of the Eev. S. F. H. Ptobinson. He observes that the page of 

 the Book of Durrow which exhibited the four evangelical symbols as a group 

 shows " acquaintance with a very old tradition which gave the symbol of the 

 Eagle to St. Mark and the Lion to St. John."- The symbols on that page 



' For a fuller statement of the argument see my " Chapters on the Book of Mulling," 

 1897, pp. 17-29. 



2 ( . 



Celtic Illuminative Art," 1908, note on PI. xii. It is curious that in spite of this 

 Mr. Robinson calls the Eagle, which in the same MS. precedes St. Mark's Gospel, " the 

 symbol of the Evangelist St. John " (PI. iv). 



E.I.A. PBGC, VOL. XXXIII., SECT. C. [46] 



