330 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



it by E«eves/ which added little to the information given by Betham, but 

 doubtless drew tu it the attention of many scholars who had not before heard 

 of it. Professor Eugene O'Curry, in 1S60, published a short description of 

 the manuscript, in which attention was called, apparently for the first time, 

 to the fact that it was embellished " with some slight attempts at illumina- 

 tion." He gave a facsimile of part of f. IQ''.- In 187-4 four facsimiles 

 (ff. iP, 48'', 50'^, ■51''), which are almost, if not exactly, identical in size with 

 the original, were published in the " National ilanuscripts of Ireland," Part i, 

 plat€S iii, iv ; but the editor, Sir J. T. Gilbert, tells nothing about the manu- 

 script which he might not have gathered from Betham and Peeves. The 

 facsimiles are useful, but the reader should be cautioned that they are not 

 accurate reproductions in regard of the initials and rubrics. His longer 

 notice, printed the same year by the Historical Manuscripts Commission,^ 

 though e\-idently based on first-hand knowledge, is not, regarding the charac- 

 teristic features of the manuscript, much more informing. The only attempt 

 at a detailed description of the book which has come under my notice is from 

 the pen of Mr. M. Esposito, and appeared in "Ifotes and Queries," ser. xi 

 (1915), nos. 286, 301 (xi, 466; xii, 253), under the title, "The so-called 

 Psalter of St. Columba." ilr. Esposito's notes are somewhat fragmentary, 

 and they are not always accurate ; but I have made some use of them. 



The text of the Cathach is here published for the first time. I have 

 printed it line for line from the manuscript. Contractions have been 

 expanded, supplied letters being indicated by italics. Clarendon type has 

 been used for the rubrics. Lost or illegible words or letters are enclosed in 

 square brackets. I have copied them from V, or in the case of rubrics from 

 A, except in places where it was clear that the scribe did not follow the 

 received Galilean or Amiatine text, the spelling being assimilated to that of 

 the legible parts of the manuscript. Obvious errors of the scribe are marked 

 with an obelus (t). An attempt has been made, by means of capitals, to 

 indicate the occasional use by the scribe of letters of large size ; but it was 

 not possible to do this on a consistent principle throughout. 



It is with some shame, as well as much gratitude, that 1 place on record 

 the assistance which I have received from scholars, who ungrudgingly spent 

 time and labour in response to my inquiries. Mr. E. C. E. Armstrong has 

 contributed the valuable account of the shrine of the Cathach, printed as the 

 first Appendix ; Professor W. M. Lindsay has written in Appendix II, as no 



' Adamnan, pp. 233, 249, 319. 



^ " Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History " (re-issue 1878), p. 332, and pi. 1b. 



^ Appendix to Report iv, p. 581 ff. 



